ByteDance said on Monday it will introduce safeguards to curb the unauthorised use of intellectual property on its AI video generator, Seedance 2.0, after threats of legal action from United States studios, including Disney.

The model, launched last week, has quickly gone viral in China, with clips circulating online such as a fabricated fight between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

Seedance 2.0 has drawn comparisons to DeepSeek and earned praise for generating cinematic-style storylines from minimal prompts.

Disney has issued a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging the Chinese firm used Disney-owned characters to train and operate its Seedance 2.0 AI model without permission, according to Reuters, citing a source familiar with the matter on Sunday.

The letter further alleged that Seedance was reproducing, distributing, and generating derivative works featuring characters such as Spider-Man, Darth Vader, and others, the person added.

“We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users,” ByteDance said in its statement.

Disney has taken similar action against Character.AI, demanding that the startup immediately cease the unauthorised use of its copyrighted characters.

In December, Disney signed a licensing agreement with OpenAI, allowing the company to use characters from Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel Entertainment in its Sora video generator.