Chinese AI models clone Hollywood characters via platforms beyond U.S. legal reach

MiniMax's Hailuo 3 and ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 are generating unauthorized reproductions of Hollywood characters — The Office, Elsa, a Tom Cruise–Brad Pitt deepfake — through intermediary platforms like Krea that route requests to servers in China. Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. are suing MiniMax; a takedown removes one clip while the model stays online. (Deadline, 7 August 2026)