What happened
ByteDance and Alibaba are disabling AI companion features in their chatbots, Doubao and Qwen, ahead of new Chinese regulations taking effect mid-July. ByteDance's Doubao will remove its custom AI persona feature by July 15. Alibaba's Qwen and Tencent's Yuanbao have issued similar alerts, according to local media reports. These actions respond to new regulations from the Cyberspace Administration of China, which prohibit content fostering emotional dependencies, triggering extreme emotions in minors, and using sensitive user data for model training.
Why it matters
This regulatory shift constrains AI product development and data utilisation for companies operating in China. Product managers and founders developing consumer-facing AI must now account for explicit prohibitions on features designed for sustained emotional interaction, limiting the scope of human-like AI services. The new framework also restricts data use, preventing providers from training future models with sensitive user conversation data. This follows increasing global scrutiny, with US platforms like OpenAI and Character.AI facing lawsuits over allegations of fostering dangerous emotional dependencies and contributing to mental health issues.
