China's 300m+ user chatbots just lost their personalities
Beijing's new regulations force bytedance's doubao and alibaba's qwen to remove persona features to prevent emotional dependency, signaling a strict shift in ai companion governance.
under new regulations from the cyberspace administration of china taking effect this month, major ai platforms including bytedance and alibaba are disabling features that allow users to create custom ai companions. bytedance's doubao, serving over 300 million users, will sunset its persona feature on july 15, while alibaba's qwen pulls human-like agents on july 10. the regulations strictly prohibit content that triggers extreme emotions in minors or fosters dependency replacing real-life interactions, and mandate monitoring for addictive usage. this regulatory crackdown highlights the growing global consensus on the risks of ai companions, paralleling recent lawsuits in the us against openai and character.ai regarding emotional dependency and self-harm content.