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Senators Marsha Blackburn and Peter Welch are calling for a new version of ByteDance’s artificial intelligence app SeaDance to be shut down. The app generates videos of real people and licensed characters, raising concerns about copyright and intellectual property rights.
Seedance 2.0 is “the clearest example of copyright infringement by a ByteDance product to date, and we need to immediately shut down Seedance and implement meaningful safeguards to prevent further infringing output,” Blackburn, R-Tennessee, and Welch, R-Vermont, wrote in a letter to ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo, first obtained by CNBC.
Their letter reflects growing concerns on Capitol Hill about how AI companies develop and use their models and whether adequate protections are in place for those who generate the materials used to train them.
“Responsible global companies obey the law and respect core economic rights, including the protection of intellectual property and personal image,” Blackburn and Welch said. They cited examples of Seedance 2.0 productions created after the platform went live on February 12th, including actors Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Netflix Show “Stranger Things.”
In a statement to CNBC, a ByteDance spokesperson said, “ByteDance respects intellectual property rights and has heard your concerns about SeaDance 2.0. We are taking steps to strengthen our current safeguards to prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property and likeness by our users.”
Lawmakers are not the only ones concerned. Hollywood organizations, including the Motion Picture Association of Japan, sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance. The Information reported that ByteDance has paused the global launch of Seedance 2.0.
So far, Congress has taken a largely interventionist approach to regulating AI. Lawmakers say they don’t want to create guardrails that would limit the ability of American companies to innovate and stay ahead of foreign competitors. Several lawmakers said the industry moves so quickly that bills considered years ago are already outdated and likely won’t be enough to cover advances such as agent-based AI.
But senators including Blackburn and Welch have introduced targeted AI legislation. In August, the two announced a bill to protect artists from having their copyrighted works used to train AI.
