AI-generated clips featuring characters from The Office have highlighted continuing concerns that Chinese video-generation tools can be used to reproduce Hollywood intellectual property without effective safeguards. The example matters because it emerged while MiniMax, the maker of Hailuo 3, is defending a copyright lawsuit brought by major US studios, underscoring the growing legal and commercial conflict around generative video.

Tech investor Justine Moore created a clip of Dwight and Jim through Krea using a simple text prompt, despite Hailuo 3 not being directly available in the US or EU; the prompt was still processed on MiniMax servers. Disney, Universal and Warner Bros. allege MiniMax has copied copyrighted works “on a massive scale”, citing promotional videos involving characters including Deadpool, Wolverine and the Joker; MiniMax denies the claims and reportedly removed those clips from YouTube. Meanwhile, ByteDance’s Seedance 2.5 appears to have prompted fewer similar uses than its predecessor, suggesting stronger controls after previous deepfake controversies.