A new artificial intelligence (AI) model developed by the Chinese company behind TikTok rocked Hollywood this week - not just because of what it can do, but what it could mean for creative industries. Created by tech giant ByteDance, Seedance 2.0 can generate cinema-quality video, complete with sound effects and dialogue, from just a few written prompts. Many of the clips said to have been made using Seedance, and featuring popular characters like Spider-Man and Deadpool, went viral. What is Seedance - and why the stir? Seedance was launched to little fanfare in June 2025 but it is the second version that came eight months later that has caused a major stir.

Chinese technology giant ByteDance has pledged to curb a controversial artificial intelligence (AI) video-making tool, following threats of legal action from Disney and complaints from other entertainment giants. In the last few days, videos made using the latest version of the app Seedance have proliferated online. Many have been lauded for their realism. Disney's lawyers accused ByteDance of committing a virtual smash-and-grab of their intellectual property, including superheroes from Marvel, Star Wars and various cartoons. On Monday ByteDance told the BBC that the company respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0.

ByteDance's AI Videos Are Scary Realistic. An image created with Bytedance's AI tool Seedream, via the platform Kapwing, of Minions playing basketball. This week, OpenAI released its latest AI video generation model, Sora 2, advertising it as a big leap forward for the space. As Sora hits the public, it will have to compete for market share in a crowded market, including with a major competitor that is rapidly gaining steam: the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok . In the past few months, ByteDance released Seedance, an AI video generator that many users are already calling the best in the world, and a new version of Seedream, an elite image model.