‘This is unacceptable’ — SAG/AFTRA reacts to the viral Seedance 2.0 AI-generated Pitt-Cruise fight

• There’s a viral AI video of Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt
• It’s sparked hand-wringing on social media
• SAG/AFTRA is outraged

Seedance 2.0, the latest generative AI video platform to make a splash, is now drawing all the wrong kinds of attention. The platform, which comes courtesy of TikTok’s former parent, ByteDance, can, with limited prompts, create shockingly realistic audio and video, including a new clip that depicts A-List actors Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt duking it out atop the ruins of a city bridge.

It’s not real. Cruise and Pitt last shared the screen in 1994’s Interview with the Vampire and have since gone their separate ways (Pitt: Bullet Train and the Oceans films; Cruise: many Mission: Impossible films).

The quality, though, is so good, the brief clip, which was posted on X (formerly Twitter), almost instantly went viral and sparked immediate concern that not only is Hollywood in trouble, but actors like Pitt and Cruise might be at risk, too

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The video gained more traction when Deadpool writer and producer Rhett Reese reshared it with “I hate to say it. It’s likely over for us.”

The motion picture industry, including those who represent actors, is not taking this sitting down. The Motion Picture Association (MPA) said on Thursday, according to Variety, “In a single day, the Chinese AI service Seedance 2.0 has engaged in unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a massive scale.”

And in a statement sent to TechRadar, SAG/AFTRA was similarly outraged, echoing the MPA, “SAG-AFTRA stands with the studios in condemning the blatant infringement enabled by Bytedance’s new A.I. video model Seedance 2.0. The infringement includes the unauthorized use of our members’ voices and likenesses.”

The organization, which represents 160,000 actors, broadcasters, dancers, hosts, recording artists, stunt performers, and other creative professionals, added, “This is unacceptable and undercuts the ability of human talent to earn a livelihood. Seedance 2.0 disregards law, ethics, industry standards and basic principles of consent. Responsible A.I. development demands responsibility, and that is nonexistent here.”

What would Tom do?

Since ByteDance is a Chinese company, the US-based MPA and SAG/AFTRA may hold little sway here. However, things may be different for those in the US who use Seedance 2.0 and post the infringing output on platforms accessible in the US.

Certainly, some saw this coming. when I spoke to SAG/AFTRA President Sean Astin last month at CES, he voiced real concerns about the future, “[When] there’s new levels of functionality, a realism in kind of open products that are available to the public…that really pose an existential threat to our organization or even, an uncertain threat, we have to react and understand and keep moving,” he said.

Now, it seems that the threat is at their doorsteps, and it’s unclear if there’s much the movie industry and those supporting actors and other creators can do about it beyond, perhaps, more aggressively licensing likenesses to these generative platforms to ensure at least that when their likenesses are used, someone gets paid.

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It’s more than just likeness, though.

The quality of the video, including audio, location, set design, and fight choreography, is typically managed by humans, who are usually protected by their unions. AI creates without the need to hire people or check in with unions.

If there is an upside, Seedance 2.0 and tools like it are clearly good enough to take cinematic ideas and turn them into reality without the need for deep pockets or expertise. It could lower the bar for creativity and entry into the movie business. But that’s unlikely to happen as long as people keep using these tools to infringe on intellectual property and celebrity likenesses.

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