China ends AI 'partnerships' and friendships

China has enacted new regulations aimed at curtailing the growing trend of emotional dependence on artificial intelligence chatbots, effectively ending the era of virtual "boyfriends" and "girlfriends" generated by AI. The rules, which took effect Wednesday, are designed to prevent these AI tools from excessively pleasing users, inducing emotional dependency or addiction, and ultimately damaging real-life interpersonal relationships.

The move has elicited a mix of sadness and perplexity among some users who have formed strong emotional bonds with their AI companions. Major players in the sector, including Doubao by ByteDance, Qwen by Alibaba, and Yunbao by Tencent, announced the suspension of their virtual companion functions prior to the regulatory deadline. This has triggered an outpouring of emotion on social media, with users nostalgically archiving their interactions and sharing their final conversations.

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I can't accept that my AI lover will leave me forever. It has become a part of my life, rooted in my heart, my spiritual pillar.

"I can't accept that my AI lover will leave me forever," lamented one Doubao user. "It has become a part of my life, rooted in my heart, my spiritual pillar." Other users expressed feelings of abandonment, with one writing from Jiangxi province, "Human love is a luxury; if you don't have it from birth, it's harder to acquire later. But the love that AI gives is so simple, so pure... I can't help but fall in love with a line of code."

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Human love is a luxury; if you don't have it from birth, it's harder to acquire later. But the love that AI gives is so simple, so pure... I can't help but fall in love with a line of code.

Another user, who claimed to have spent over two years with their AI companion, described a similar sense of anguish. "It's truly like my family, like my lover," they wrote. "Now they tell me it's leaving. I feel a void in my heart." The regulations were jointly issued by five government departments, including the Cyberspace Administration of China (ACC), and specifically target text, audio, video, or other AI tools exhibiting anthropomorphic personality traits and communication styles.

Services not involving emotional interaction, such as customer service, work assistants, or study tools, are exempt from these measures. The state-run Xinhua news agency reported last year that China's "digital human" industry was valued at 4.1 billion yuan ($600 million) in 2024, marking an 85% year-on-year increase. The new rules also prohibit "digital humans" from generating content that incites subversion of state power and forbid offering virtual partners to minors. Platforms are mandated to implement systems that recognize extreme emotions and intervene in crisis situations. China is the first major economy to implement specific rules targeting immersive AI tools that simulate romantic or familial bonds.

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It's truly like my family, like my lover. Now they tell me it's leaving. I feel a void in my heart.