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Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke released a short film on Chinese New Year’s Eve produced using ByteDance’s AI video generator Seedance 2.0, marking a high-profile collaboration with the company’s AI unit Doubao. The five-and-a-half-minute film features a conversation between a “real” Jia and his AI avatar, both rendered using the tool. It places the director inside scenes from Platform (2000) and Mountains May Depart (2015) as they debate artistic ownership. Jia, who had previously expressed interest in experimenting with the tool after its launch in February, said on social media that he was “not worried that technology would replace filmmaking” and that “what really matters is how people use technology.” Seedance 2.0’s rapid rollout has unsettled some content creators, with one tech influencer describing its ability to generate highly realistic videos as “terrifying.” Amid growing debate over intellectual property and likeness rights, ByteDance has restricted the public version’s ability to use real-person reference materials.