Senators tell ByteDance to close Seedance AI tool, citing ‘glaring’ copyright concerns
A bipartisan Senate duo wants ByteDance to shut down its Seedance artificial intelligence tool, calling it a “egregious example” of copyright infringement launched without regard to U.S. law.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, and Sen. Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont, said users generated a fake fight between actors Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise and staged a rewritten ending of the hit TV show “Stranger Things” moments after Seedance 2.0 launched in February.
“This technology is the most egregious example of copyright infringement of a ByteDance product to date, and you must immediately stop Seedance and implement meaningful safeguards to prevent further violations,” the senators wrote in a letter dated Monday.
ByteDance is a Chinese technology company that was forced to sell its majority stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations under a law passed by Congress and signed by President Joseph R. Biden.
The second Trump administration facilitated the sale of ByteDance’s US operations to TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.
Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX are the main investors in the new American company TikTok.
The senators’ letter shows that US lawmakers are still concerned about ByteDance’s operations. It also highlights concerns that new AI models could overtake regulations.
Policymakers are struggling to put safeguards in place around emerging technology. They worry about unintended consequences, but also don’t want to hamstring American innovators while other countries work to adopt and deploy AI.
Seedance 2.0 allows users to produce short clips combining video and audio to produce cinema-quality scenes.
The Motion Picture Association recently sent a cease and desist letter to ByteDance, citing the studios’ copyright concerns.
In a written statement, ByteDance said it “respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0.”
The company added: “We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent unauthorized use of intellectual property and imagery by users. »
Ms Blackburn and Mr Welch said the company should close Seedance if it wants to establish “sustainable economic links with democratic and free market economies”.
“Responsible global companies follow the law and respect basic economic rights, including intellectual property and protection of personal image. By launching Seedance 2.0 without any effort to license training materials or prevent illegal and counterfeit productions, ByteDance has shown that it is willing to violate US federal law and steal the intellectual property of American creators for its own monetary gain.”
Ms. Blackburn and Mr. Welch worked together in August to introduce the Artificial Intelligence Networks Transparency and Accountability Act, which allows musicians, artists, writers and other creators to determine whether their copyrighted works have been used to train generative AI models.
“The TRAIN Act would protect creators by allowing them to access the courts to find out whether their work is used to train generative AI models and seek compensation for this misuse,” Ms. Blackburn said at the time.
