China's AI companion rules force Doubao and Qwen feature shutdowns

AI News reports that China's AI companion rules take effect on July 15 and are already changing major consumer AI products. ByteDance's Doubao and Alibaba's Qwen have disabled or scheduled shutdowns for humanlike, user-created, or emotionally persistent agent features rather than risk non-compliance. The rules target AI services that simulate personality and sustained emotional interaction, requiring anti-addiction controls, minor protections, emergency intervention duties, security assessments, and app-store compliance checks.

Key details: The rules are called the Interim Measures for the Administration of AI Anthropomorphic Interactive Services, Doubao said its agent function would go offline on July 15, while Qwen moved earlier for some humanlike agents, The framework requires safeguards for emotional dependence, minors, and security assessment filings.

Why it matters: China is drawing an early regulatory line around emotionally persistent AI companions, a category other governments are still struggling to define.