BEIJING, China: ByteDance said it would strengthen safeguards on its AI video generator Seedance 2.0 to prevent the unauthorised use of intellectual property, after U.S. studios, including Disney, threatened legal action.

Seedance 2.0, launched last week, has gone viral in China with AI-generated clips, including one depicting Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in a fight. The tool has drawn comparisons to DeepSeek and been praised for producing cinematic storylines from minimal prompts.

Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance accusing the company of using Disney characters to train and power Seedance 2.0 without permission, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

According to the source, Disney alleged that Seedance was prepackaged with a pirated library of copyrighted characters from franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel, presenting them as if they were public-domain clip art.

The letter claimed the tool was reproducing, distributing, and creating derivative works featuring characters such as Spider-Man and Darth Vader, the source 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 a statement, without providing further details.

Online outlet Axios first reported Disney's action. Paramount Skydance has also sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, accusing the company of engaging in "blatant infringement" of its intellectual property, Variety reported.

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

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