ByteDance Seedance 2.0: AI Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise fight clip sparks row over deepfakes

TikTok-owner ByteDance is not only garnering a lot of praise, but also has raised privacy concerns over for its advanced generative Artificial Intelligence video generator model Seedance 2.0.

Recently, some unknown Seedance 2.0 users rolled out an artificially generated video showcasing the fighting scene featuring Hollywood icons-- Bratt Pitt and Tom Cruise. The Mission Impossible-fame actor is shown to try killing Pitt for knowing too much about Jeffrey Epstein, and the latter defends that late convicted socialite as a good person.

Besides the controversial topic, the 15-second clip fight scene between Pitt and Cruise is being hailed as the new pinaccle of advanced gen AI tech. It shows very true-to-life action sequences and hard to believe it's a synthetic video.

The voice, perfectly lip-synced with the script, expressive eyes, facial expression, and limb movements look too real. Only the watermark reveals it is an AI video.

Seedance 2.0 AI video featuring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

Without the watermark, only AI experts will be able detect that the clip (shared on X platform below) is an AI-generated video.

Some Seedance 2.0 users have released another video featuring the Titanic climax scene with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The protagonist who dies at the end of the movie is seen coming alive and climbing onto the floating table.

Taking note of the copyright violations, the Motion Picture Association of the US has urged ByteDance to take down those videos immediately or face legal consequences.

The issue of the surge in Deepfakes has raised privacy concerns worldwide. Recently, Indian philanthropist Sudha Murty's deepfake video was misused to prey on naive smartphone users to invest on fraudulent investment scam.

Considering the serious implications of such synthetic videos, the Indian government introduced new Information Technology Rules to curb such activities on social media accounts.

The mandate requires social media platforms to:

- Prominently label AI-generated content and ensure synthetic content is embedded with identifiers.

- Deploy automated tools to prevent the spread of illegal, sexually exploitative, or deceptive AI content.

- Mandatorily take down any AI-generated content within three hours of receiving a government or court notice.

It remains to be seen, if ByteDance takes remedial measures to control the Seedance 2.0 model from generating pictures or videos real people.

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