Viral AI Video of Cruise-Pitt Fight Raises Hollywood Concerns

A viral artificial intelligence-generated video depicting Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in a rooftop fight has ignited fresh concerns in Hollywood over the technology's potential to disrupt the film industry. The 15-second clip, shared on social media two days ago, shows the two actors exchanging punches amid rubble and has garnered over 1.5 million views, prompting warnings from screenwriters and condemnation from industry trade groups.

Irish filmmaker Ruairí Robinson, who earned an Academy Award nomination in 2002 for his short film "Fifty Percent Grey" and directed the 2013 sci-fi horror "The Last Days on Mars," created the video using Seedance 2.0, a new AI video generation tool launched last week by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. Robinson described the process as simple, requiring just a two-line text prompt to produce the hyperrealistic scene, complete with detailed lighting, audio and physical movements. He also shared variants, including versions featuring zombies, robots and references to other scenarios, to demonstrate the tool's versatility.

The video's emergence has drawn sharp reactions from Hollywood professionals. Screenwriter Rhett Reese, known for...