Why Did a Chinese AI Application Cause a Stir in Hollywood?

SadaNews - A new artificial intelligence model developed by ByteDance, the Chinese company behind the TikTok app, created a buzz in Hollywood this week, not only because of its capabilities but also due to its potential impact on creative industries.

According to the BBC, the "Sidance" app can produce cinematic-quality videos, complete with sound effects and dialogues, simply by inputting some text.

Videos allegedly created using "Sidance" featuring famous characters like "Spider-Man" and "Deadpool" have spread widely.

Major studios such as Disney and Paramount have quickly accused ByteDance of violating intellectual property rights, but concerns about this technology extend beyond legal issues.

What is "Sidance"? And why all the fuss?

"Sidance" was launched in June 2025 with little fanfare, but the second version released eight months later is what stirred a major controversy.

Yan Willem Blum from the creative studio "Video State" says, "For the first time, I don’t think this looks good for AI; I think it’s from a real production process."

He adds that Western AI video models have made strides in processing user instructions to generate stunning visuals, but it seems that "Sidance" has put everything together.

Like other AI tools, "Sidance" can create videos from short texts, and in some cases, it appears that entering just one line of text produces high-quality videos.

Margaret Mitchell, an AI ethics researcher, states that this is particularly impressive because it combines text, image, and sound into one system.

The impact of "Sidance" is measured by an unexpected standard: how well it produced a video of Will Smith eating pasta, as it not only created a remarkably realistic version of the star enjoying a pasta dish but also generated viral videos of Smith fighting a pasta monster, all appearing like a big-budget film.

Many industry experts and filmmakers believe "Sidance" marks a new chapter in the development of video generation technology.

David Cook, director of an animation studio in Singapore, says that the complex action scenes it produces look more realistic than its competitors, adding, "One almost feels like they are hiring a cinematographer who specializes in action films."

The Promise and the Challenge

"Sidance" has faced issues related to copyright, a growing challenge in the age of AI, and experts warn that AI companies prioritize technology over humans, developing more powerful tools while using data without compensation.

Hollywood's major companies have complained about "Sidance" using copyrighted characters like "Spider-Man" and "Darth Vader."

Disney and Paramount have sent cease-and-desist letters demanding "Sidance" stop using their content, and Japan is investigating ByteDance for copyright violations after AI-generated videos featuring famous "anime" characters went viral.

ByteDance stated that it is taking steps to "enhance existing safeguards."

The BBC noted that this is not exclusive to the Chinese company. In 2023, the "New York Times" filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming they used its articles without permission to train their AI models. Reddit also sued a company called "Perplexity" last year, claiming that the AI company illegally aggregated user posts. Disney raised similar concerns with Google.

Mitchell highlights that clearly labeling content to prevent misinformation and building public trust in AI is much more important than producing the "most eye-catching" videos.

She adds that for this reason, developers should build systems for managing licenses and payments and provide clear mechanisms for individuals to contest misuse. For instance, Disney signed a billion-dollar ($730 million GBP) deal with OpenAI's "Sora" to use characters from its films.

Shanan Cohney, a computing researcher at the University of Melbourne, states that the developers of "Sidance" were likely aware of the potential copyright issues regarding the use of Western intellectual property, yet they took the risk.

He adds, "There’s plenty of room to strategically circumvent the rules, ignore them for a while, and gain marketing leverage."

Meanwhile, for smaller companies, "Sidance" is an invaluable tool that cannot be overlooked.

Cook argues that AI of this quality will enable companies like his to produce films that would have cost far beyond their current capabilities.

He gave an example of the boom of short videos and mini-dramas in Asia, which are generally produced on modest budgets - about $140,000 for up to 80 episodes, each lasting no more than two minutes.

These productions were limited to romantic or family dramas to keep costs down, as they required fewer visual effects, but AI is now capable of "elevating low-budget productions to more ambitious genres such as science fiction, historical drama, and now action."