Has AI Finally Come for Hollywood?

Published: February 17, 2026

artificial intelligence, AI — Photo by Cash Macanaya on Unsplash

By Gavin Boyle

TikTok’s owner ByteDance released a new AI tool in China which has received condemnation from Hollywood for its copyright infringement through the unauthorized use of actors’ likeness.

“By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs. ByteDance should immediately cease its infringing activity,” said Charles Rivkin, the chairman and CEO of the MPA.

“SAG-AFTRA stands with the studios in condemning the blatant infringement enabled by ByteDance’s new AI video model Seedance 2.0,” the actors’ union added in a statement of its own. “The infringement includes the unauthorized use of our members’ voices and likenesses. 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 AI development demands responsibility, and that is nonexistent here.”

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ByteDance has since responded, admitting that the initial version of its tool did infringe on copyright, and it said it will strengthen its safeguards so users can no longer blatantly generate videos using the likeness of actors.

Nonetheless, the release of this tool is a problem for Hollywood because it show just how easy it could be for AI to completely replace actors’ work in the future. This was exactly the worry that SAG-AFTRA had during the summer of 2023 when the union went on strike for over 100 days to fight for strong AI protections.

While studios have yet to try to push these AI safeguards that were put into place in 2023, Seedance 2.0 potentially shines a light on technology that could be coming to Hollywood in the coming years. Disney already announced plans to bring AI to its streaming platform which would allow users to generate short videos of over 100 of its most popular characters.

“There’s phenomenal opportunities to deploy AI across our direct-to-consumer platforms, both to provide tools that make the platforms more dynamic and more sticky with consumers, but also to give consumers the opportunity to create on our platforms,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said during last year’s Q4 earnings report.

“AI is going to give us the ability…to provide users of Disney+ with a much more engaged experience, including the ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user-generated content – mostly short-form – from others,” he added.

Thus, while Seedance has received condemnation across the board from the entertainment industry, the same is unlikely to be the case when AI begins to be implemented by major US studios to essentially do the same thing – the only difference being it will not infringe on copyright.

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