image source, Getty Images
A new artificial intelligence application, developed by the Chinese company that owns the TikTok application, was behind a shock that shook Hollywood this week, not only because of its capabilities, but also for what it may mean for the future of the creative industries in general.
This application, called “Seedance 2.0” and developed by the giant technology company ByteDance, can produce high-quality cinematic videos containing sound effects and dialogue, based on text that does not exceed a few written lines.
Videos – allegedly made using Sedan 2 – showing popular characters such as Spider-Man and Deadpool have gone viral, sparking a huge buzz around the app.
Major studios such as Disney and Paramount were quick to accuse ByteDance of violating intellectual property rights, but the concerns associated with this technology go far beyond legal aspects.
What is the Sedance 2 artificial intelligence application, and what is all the fuss about?
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The Cedance 2 app was first released quietly in June 2025, but it was the second version that appeared eight months later that sparked the current storm.
“For the first time, I’m not saying this looks good for an AI video…it looks like it came straight off a real movie production line,” said Jan-Willem Blom from art studio Videostate.
He added that these Western video applications have made progress in executing instructions and producing stunning images, but Sedan 2 appears to have combined all the elements into one system.
Like other tools like Midjourney and Sora, developed by AI company OpenAI, Sedance 2 can be used to produce videos from short text commands — and in some cases, it can produce high-quality video from just one sentence.
The strengths of this application in particular lie in that it combines text, image and sound into one system, according to artificial intelligence ethics researcher Margaret Mitchell.
“Will Smith and Spaghetti” test
image source, Alamy
Sidance 2’s impact is measured by an unexpected standard; Which is the extent of his ability to produce a clip of Will Smith eating spaghetti.
Not only did Sedan 2 produce a hyper-realistic version of the star eating a plate of pasta, it also produced viral clips showing Smith battling the “spaghetti monster” — with the look and feel of a movie with a big production budget.
Many experts and filmmakers believe that Cedance 2 is a new chapter in the development of artificial intelligence video production technology.
David Cook, director of Tiny Island Productions in Singapore, said his complex action scenes look more realistic than his competitors: “You feel like you have an action director working alongside you.”
Promise and challenge
Sedan 2 faced intellectual property rights issues, issues that are getting worse over time in the age of artificial intelligence.
Experts warn that AI companies are putting technology above humans, developing more powerful tools and using data without paying for it.
Giant Hollywood artistic production companies expressed their anger at Sidance 2’s use of copyrighted characters such as Spider-Man and Darth Vader.
Disney and Paramount sent “desist and desist” letters demanding that Sedance 2 stop using its content. Japan also opened an investigation into ByteDance regarding alleged copyright violations, after artificial intelligence clips of famous cartoon characters spread.
ByteDance said it was taking steps to “strengthen existing controls.” But this is not a problem for the Chinese company alone.
In 2023, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company OpenAI and Microsoft Software, accusing the companies of using its articles without permission to fuel their own AI applications.
Reddit also filed a lawsuit against Perplexity last year, accusing it of illegally collecting user posts. Disney has also expressed similar concerns about Google.
Margaret Mitchell said that clearly labeling content to prevent misinformation and build public trust in artificial intelligence is much more important than producing “more impressive” videos.
She added that developers should build systems that manage licensing and payment processes, and provide clear mechanisms for people to object to abuse.
For example, Disney signed a $1 billion deal with the “Sora” application, developed by OpenAI, allowing the application to use Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel characters.
image source, Getty Images
Researcher Shannan Cooney from the University of Melbourne suggests that the Sedan 2 developers were likely aware of potential copyright issues when using Western intellectual property, but decided to take the risk anyway.
“There is always room to maneuver and bend the rules for a while in order to gain marketing momentum,” he said.
Meanwhile, small companies cannot afford to ignore the Sedan 2 despite this controversy.
Cook said that artificial intelligence of this quality would allow companies like his to produce films that could not afford their budget.
He gave the example of the boom in short-form videos and mini-dramas in Asia, which are typically produced on small budgets — about $140,000 for up to 80 episodes of no more than two minutes each.
In order to cut costs, these works were based on romantic stories or family dramas because they required fewer visual effects.
But artificial intelligence is now able, Cook says, “to raise the level of low-budget artistic production to be more ambitious and address topics such as science fiction and historical drama, in addition to action films and series that have been added to the list of low-budget works in the recent period.”
Is China ahead in the race?
Sedan 2 once again highlights Chinese technology.
“This indicates that Chinese apps are at least keeping up with the limits of what is available,” Cooney said. “If ByteDance is able to produce this app as if it appeared out of nowhere, what other apps might Chinese companies produce?”
Last year, another Chinese AI app, DeepSeek, sent global shockwaves thanks to a massive, low-cost language app. Indeed, it quickly overtook GBT Chat to become the most downloaded free app in the Apple App Store in the United States.
Over the past year, Beijing has placed artificial intelligence and robotic technology at the heart of its economic strategy, investing heavily in the production of advanced electronic chips, automation, and generative artificial intelligence, as part of its effort to stay one step ahead of the United States in the technology sector.
While the Sidance 2 app was making headlines, other smaller Chinese companies were launching new generative AI tools in less fanfare before the Lunar New Year holiday.
China analyst Bill Bishop wrote in his newsletter that the Spring Festival has largely become an “AI holiday,” with companies choosing to time their launches during a period when millions of people are at home trying out new apps.
The year 2026 is expected to be a turning point in the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence in China, not only at the level of chatbots, but also at the level of artificial intelligence agents who manage transactions, programming tools integrated into daily business, and video-making applications that routinely use artificial intelligence.
