Doubao PR head Liu Xing published a post that day, directly characterizing the recently circulating claim that "Hengdian is partnering with ByteDance to feed the portraits and voices of 150,000 extras to ByteDance's large model" as "severely inaccurate."
Liu Xing explained that the real "Hengdian Film and TV AI Service Platform" project aims to build a set of public digital infrastructure: organizing assets such as the film base's real-location footage into high-quality datasets, helping production crews select locations, prepare, and shoot more efficiently, while also lowering the threshold for small and medium-sized film companies to use AI, so that more creators are able to do their work well. In other words, it serves the business of "making films" itself, not feeding faces and voiceprints into a model.
Data doesn't belong to ByteDance; portraits and voices require authorization
He further drew clear boundaries: Volcano Engine is only the technical support provider in this project, and all data assets belong to Hengdian or the authorized parties; any use of anyone's portrait or voice in the project necessarily requires prior consent from the individual concerned, and this data will absolutely not be used to train ByteDance's large model.
The backdrop for this clarification was the 2026 Hengdian Film and Television Culture Industry Development Conference held on October 23 in Hengdian, Dongyang, Jinhua, Zhejiang, under the theme "Digital Intelligence Empowerment, Light and Shadow Craftsmanship, Deep Cultivation of Quality Works." At the conference, the Dongyang Municipal People's Government reached a partnership with Volcano Engine to launch the "Hengdian π" AI platform, targeting the full workflow of film and TV creativity, shooting, production, and distribution, and exploring AI-empowered creation paths for live-action dramas, micro short dramas, and more. As "AI + film and TV" accelerates its rollout, whether extras' portraits and voices might be quietly taken for training is the nerve most sensitive to practitioners and the public—and Liu Xing's response was aimed directly at that nerve.