Feb. 11, 2026
Most of the leading Big Tech names, and a handful of powerful startups, have been focused on conquering AI video as one of the next frontiers of innovation. Well, that game seems to be officially over, and from here on we’ll mostly quibble over details like resolution, video length, and costs. While Google (Veo), OpenAI (Sora), Runway, and a growing army of AI video apps have been fighting to make AI video viable, China’s ByteDance, the makers of TikTok, just came in and smashed the space with Seedance 2.0.
Long story short, as someone who has experimented with and monitored AI video since 2022, I can confidently say that this is the first time I’ve seen something that may offer a truly viable visual alternative to live action film. When ByteDance released Seedance 1.0 in the summer of 2025, the company’s model looked about as good as some of the other leading AI video models. But Seedance 2.0? This is so good it took me a while to comment because it was so impressive I wanted to make sure I wasn’t somehow being tricked (a common instinct now in the AI space, which is packed with false flags).
The Seedance 2.0 video that broke my brain was a martial arts fight between fake Brad Pitt and fake Tom Cruise atop a building in the middle of a city. The faces look like the actors. The faces remain consistent. The fighting is convincing. The sound effects and subtle motion are surprisingly accurate. If we time-traveled back to 2019 and showed this clip, I believe most viewers would ask, “So when is this Pitt vs. Cruise movie coming out??”
The Seedance 2.0 demo was generated by Ruairi Robinson, a U.S.-based Irish director and traditional VFX artist who has been experimenting with AI video. If Robinson sounds familiar, you might remember that he was previously attached to a live-action remake of the anime Akira that reportedly had Leonardo DiCaprio in a starring role. That Warner Bros. project never took off, and the studio’s rights expired in 2025, reverting to Kodansha, the Japanese manga publisher behind the original that was transformed into an animation classic and released in 1988. Robinson, who is adept at concept art world-building, is one of the best equipped to show off the powers of Seedance 2.0.
I’ll circle back soon with a more feature-focused breakdown of Seedance 2.0, but I had to finally comment on what I’m seeing. The videos don’t require some kind of elite “prompt engineering” or experience using other AI video tools, which is exactly where I thought we’d land. The earnest work many AI video users have sunk into learning the discrete aspects of various AI video tools was great for the companies making the tools, but the ultimate goal was always to make AI video easy and simple to use for all, not create a new class of insider AI video experts.
The tech companies weren’t catering to would-be next-gen AI auteurs. Instead, the goal is to allow even grandma to type in what she has in her mind and get an output that is superb and possibly even cinematic. Seedance 2.0 is the first time I’ve seen an AI video tool that points in that direction.
To those who believed they were fostering an “AI video community,” I have bad news for you: game over. Like the advent of digital video supplanting film, as soon as digital became obviously the tool to use, digital video became normal. With digital video, that transitional “community” lasted for a good while, as film purists hung onto the old ways. But AI technology moves so rapidly, I didn’t expect the same honeymoon with AI video. I think Seedance 2.0 is the end of the honeymoon.
The directors who swore off AI video will have to pay attention now. And if they don’t, there are legions of younger directors who will investigate the limits of AI video now that the uncanny valley issue has finally been pierced by ByteDance.
The outcry from traditional artists, actors, and directors has already been heating up, but I predict Seedance 2.0 will transform these piecemeal “fuck AI” declarations into legally consequential policy discussions in Washington, D.C. The emergence of Seedance 2.0 at this particular time is also meaningful, as SAG-AFTRA (the actors’ union), the Directors Guild of America (DGA), and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) all begin negotiations in the coming weeks focused on human creative rights versus the onslaught of AI video and audio tools getting better every month.
I’m not saying this is the end of normal movie cameras, or the end of traditional actors, but I am saying that the whispers about such things that have been taking place for the past few years will now become loud, full-fledged, serious conversations among even the least tech-savvy among us.
Cover via Ruairi Robinson/X.com
