TikTok maker ByteDance unveils Seedance 2.5, it can create half a minute video with single prompt

The Chinese tech giant, ByteDance, unveils Seedance 2.5 at a conference in Beijing. The new AI video generation model will ship with a notable upgrade over its predecessor. The company plans to launch the new model next month in China.

In Short

• ByteDance introduces Seedance 2.5
• At a single prompt, it will allow users to generate a 30-second-long AI video
• The Seedance 2.5 may launch next month in China

Soon after launching the Seedance 2.0, the TikTok parent company, ByteDance, introduced Seedance 2.5 on Tuesday at a conference in Beijing. The new AI video generation model comes with notable upgrades over its predecessor, with longer video durations and support for reference materials such as images, videos and audio files. While the Chinese company plans to roll out the model in China next month, the global launch remains a mystery.

Over the years, AI video generation has evolved drastically. From a hilarious AI video of Will Smith eating spaghetti to a remarkably realistic AI video of Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt, we have seen earlier. Notably, the Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting video was generated by Seedance 2.0, the previous model. Now, Seedance 2.5 is about to enter the market, and its teaser videos are buzzing online.

What Seedance 2.5 offers

So what is new with Seedance 2.5? Quite a bit, actually. According to a report of the Information, the new model can now generate videos of up to 30 seconds, double the 15-second limit of its predecessor. That alone is a significant jump. But perhaps the more interesting upgrade is how much creative control users now get. Seedance 2.5 allows you to include up to 50 reference materials in a single prompt — think images, videos, and audio files — compared to just 12 in Seedance 2.0. The more references you feed it, the more precisely it understands what you are going for, which means the output is far more likely to match what you actually had in mind.

It’s worth noting that the rollout of the previous model, the Seedance 2.0, made headlines for all the wrong reasons. After ByteDance released Seedance 2.0 in China in February, users began generating hyperrealistic videos featuring Hollywood celebrities and copyrighted characters from franchises like Marvel and Star Wars. The clips went viral, and major Hollywood studios were not amused.

Disney accused ByteDance of using its characters to train the model and distributing copyrighted material as public-domain art, while Paramount Skydance described the company's actions as blatant infringement of its intellectual property. Warner Bros, Discovery and Netflix also joined the legal dispute.

Despite the controversy, ByteDance went ahead and released Seedance 2.0 in over 100 countries, though notably not in the United States. To avoid further legal trouble, BytePlus imposed restrictions preventing the use of realistic human faces in video prompts.

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