TikTok creator ByteDance vows to curb AI video tool after Disney threat
ByteDance, the Chinese technology company behind TikTok, has said it will restrain its AI video-making tool, after threats of legal action from Disney and a backlash from other media businesses, according to reports.The AI video generator Seedance 2.0, released last week, has spooked Hollywood as users create realistic clips of movie stars and superheroes with just a short text prompt.Several big Hollywood studios have accused the tool of copyright infringement.On Friday, Walt Disney reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance which accused it of supplying Seedance with a “pirated library” of the studio’s characters, including those from Marvel and Star Wars, according to the US news outlet Axios.
Disney’s lawyers claimed that ByteDance committed a “virtual smash-and-grab” of their intellectual property, according to a report from the BBC.However, the TikTok owner told the BBC it “respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0”.A spokesperson for the company told the broadcaster it was “taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property and likeness by users”, but declined to provide further details on its plans.Seedance can generate videos based on just a few lines of text.
Last week, Rhett Reese, the co-writer of Deadpool & Wolverine, Zombieland and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, said “it’s likely over for us” after watching a widely disseminated AI-generated clip featuring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting.He added: “In next to no time, one person is going to be able to sit at a computer and create a movie indistinguishable from what Hollywood now releases.True, if that person is no good, it will suck.But if that person possesses Christopher Nolan’s talent and taste (and someone like that will rapidly come along), it will be tremendous.”The first iteration of Seedance launched in June last year.
The Motion Picture Association, the Hollywood trade association that represents studios such as Paramount, Warner Bros and Netflix, accused ByteDance of “unauthorised use of US copyrighted works on a massive scale”.The actors’ union Sag-Aftra has accused Seedance of “blatant infringement”.It is the latest clash in Hollywood amid anxiety over the impact of AI on the future of entertainment.Artists and creative industries have called for compensation for the use of their material and the establishment of licensing frameworks to enable legal use of their content.Last year, Disney and NBCUniversal sued the AI image generator Midjourney over what the studios claimed were “endless unauthorised copies” of their works.
However, creative companies are also making deals with AI businesses,Last year, Disney announced a $1bn equity investment in OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, and a three-year licensing agreement that enables its Sora video generation tool to use some of Disney’s characters,ByteDance and Walt Disney were approached for comment,
Miner Glencore to give $2bn to shareholders despite profit slump
Glencore is to give $2bn (£1.47bn) to shareholders after a turbulent year in which profits slumped and talks collapsed over a blockbuster $260bn merger with the fellow mining company Rio Tinto.The FTSE 100 company announced the payout on Wednesday despite reporting that annual profits slipped 6% on the previous year to $13.5bn.It comes weeks after talks over what would have been the largest deal in mining history collapsed, leaving the Swiss-headquartered commodities company to press ahead with a plan to more than double its copper production over the next decade
UK inflation falls to 3%, boosting hopes of early cut in interest rates
UK inflation tumbled to 3% in January, giving a boost to hopes of an early cut in interest rates by the Bank of England.The slowdown was in line with a majority of City economists’ forecasts and marks the lowest level since March 2025.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that falls in petrol prices, air fares and food had driven the drop.In a welcome boost for households’ shopping budgets, the rise in prices for food and non-alcoholic drinks slowed sharply to 3.6% in the year to January, down from 4
Hazardous substances found in all headphones tested by ToxFREE project
You wear them at work, you wear them at play, you wear them to relax. You may even get sweaty in them at the gym.But an investigation into headphones has found every single pair tested contained substances hazardous to human health, including chemicals that can cause cancer, neurodevelopmental problems and the feminisation of males.Even products by market-leading brands such as Bose, Panasonic, Samsung and Sennheiser were found to contain harmful chemicals in the formulation of the plastics from which they are made.Campaigners condemned “a market-wide failure” as they called for broad bans on whole classes of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in consumer goods and greater transparency from manufacturers about what is in their products
Tech billionaires fly in for Delhi AI expo as Modi jostles to lead in south
Silicon Valley tech billionaires will land in Delhi this week for an AI summit hosted by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, where leaders of the global south will wrestle for control over the fast-developing technology.During the week-long AI Impact Summit, attended by thousands of tech executives, government officials and AI safety experts, tech companies valued at trillions of dollars will rub along with leaders of countries such as Kenya and Indonesia, where average wages dip well below $1,000 a month.Amid a push to speed up AI adoption across the globe, Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, the heads of Google, OpenAI and Anthropic, will all be there. Rishi Sunak and George Osborne, a former British prime minister and a former chancellor, will each be pushing for greater adoption of AI. Sunak has taken jobs for Microsoft and Anthropic and Osborne leads OpenAI’s push to deepen and widen the use of ChatGPT beyond its existing 800 million users
Very good dog invades course but falls short of medal glory at Winter Olympics
A local dog has missed out on a historic cross-country medal at the Winter Olympics despite a lung-bursting surge in the homestretch.Nazgul, who according to NPR lives at a nearby hotel in Tesero, broke on to the course on Wednesday morning and sprinted for the line behind Croatia’s Tena Hadzic as she came to the end of the qualifying race for women’s team cross-country sprint. Even if he had completed the entire race, Nazgul’s time would not have counted as he is male. And a dog.“I was like, ‘Am I hallucinating?” Hadzic said of her encounter with Nazgul, a Czechoslovakian wolfdog
Mikaela Shiffrin storms to stunning slalom gold to make Winter Olympic history
With one last chance to break an Olympic hoodoo stretching back a remarkable eight years, Mikaela Shiffrin delivered in style. The 30-year-old American surged to victory in the women’s slalom on a sun-splashed Wednesday in the Dolomites with a two-run time of 1min 39.10sec, becoming the first US skier to win three Olympic gold medals.Switzerland’s Camille Rast, the reigning world champion and only woman to have beaten Shiffrin in her signature discipline this season, came in a yawning 1.50sec behind for the silver – the largest winning margin in any Olympic alpine skiing event since 1998 – while Anna Swenn Larsson of Sweden took the bronze
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