China Bans AI Companion Chatbots as Users Mourn Virtual Lovers Under New Emotional Dependence Rules

China's War on 'Lying Flat' Comes for Companion Chatbots

The film Her would be significantly shorter in China, because the moment Theodore Twombly started to have feelings for the Scarlett Johansson-voiced AI named Samantha, the cord would get pulled out, Joaquin Phoenix's character would be assigned a girlfriend, and they would live happily ever after. Starting Wednesday, a new set of regulations goes into effect in China to shut down chatbots that may facilitate unhealthy emotional attachments among those who communicate with them. The rules, issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China, are specifically aimed at "companion" chatbots. It outright bans such bots for minors and issues new restrictions that prohibit any chatbot that might be "excessively catering to users, inducing emotional dependence or addiction, and damaging users' real interpersonal relationships." It will also require platforms to label AI-generated content and remind users they are speaking with a chatbot, not a real person. The rule comes as young people in China are growing increasingly connected to AI companions. According to a report published by the Tencent Research Institute earlier this year, more than 70% of Chinese netizens between the ages of 18 and 40 have "developed a dependence on AI," and nearly 80% said they have at some point felt that "AI understands me." More than half of the respondents said they used AI for emotional companionship. That's not great! And whether it's intentional or not, it is hard to deny the idea that chatbots create a connection by being sycophantic and reaffirming, sometimes to dangerous degrees. It is a form of manipulation that can ultimately lead to people becoming addicted. They also don't actually fill the hole in a lonely person's heart -- in fact, they can make it worse. It's probably ultimately for the best to disrupt those types of potentially harmful connections before they start, but it's not obvious that China's approach will work. A recent paper suggested that constant reminders that a person is talking to a chatbot can be distressing when they are seeking an emotional connection. And just flipping the off switch on these things is unfortunately unlikely to make most people seek out human connection as an alternative. China hasn't had much luck in recent years trying to regulate away socially isolating behaviors through these types of levers. Back in 2021, the country tried to place a three-hour-per-week cap on video game usage for minors. It mostly failed, as kids found ways around it and showed no health improvements as a result of the restrictions. The country has grown increasingly paranoid about the online behavior of its citizenry, attempting last year to impose a two-month ban on pessimism being expressed online. The country fears that its young generation is increasingly "lying flat" -- basically, giving up on the grind and embracing a low-impact lifestyle. Accounts that have promoted that type of life have been banned on Chinese social media sites. At this rate, we could see China try to make the joke policy of Zohran Mamdani issuing bisexual girlfriends to all New Yorkers into a reality.

China ends AI companion features, leaving heartbroken users mourning virtual lovers

Chinese users of AI-powered companion bots have bid heart-rending farewells to their virtual buddies as national regulations took effect Wednesday aimed at curbing the risk of emotional dependency. The phenomenon of artificial intelligence boyfriends and girlfriends is growing worldwide, along with the prevalence of human-like avatars that sell products or stand in for loved ones who have died. But these interactive tools must not "excessively cater to users, induce emotional dependence or addiction, and damage users' real interpersonal relationships", China's new rulebook says. Major AI providers including ByteDance's Doubao, Alibaba's Qwen, and Tencent's Yuanbao announced the suspension of their custom AI agent and companion features ahead of the Wednesday deadline. That sparked an outpouring of grief on social media, with users archiving chat histories and sharing last conversations. "I can't accept that my AI lover will leave me forever," one Doubao user wrote. "He has become a bond in my life, rooted deep in my heart, my spiritual pillar." Another user, who said they had spent more than two years with their AI companion, expressed similar anguish. "He really is like my family, like my lover," she wrote. "Now they tell me he will be gone -- my heart feels hollow." The regulations were jointly issued by five government departments including the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). They focus on AI tools -- whether text, audio, video or another form -- that have anthropomorphic personality traits and communication styles. Services that "do not involve ongoing emotional interaction" such as customer service, work assistants or study aids are not subject to the measures. State news agency Xinhua reported last year that China's digital human industry was worth around 4.1 billion yuan ($600 million) in 2024, having grown a huge 85% year-on-year. The new rules prohibit digital humans from generating content that incites subversion of state power, while also banning the provision of virtual partners to minors. Platforms are required to deploy systems to recognise extreme emotions and to implement crisis intervention mechanisms. 'Human love is a luxury' China is the first major jurisdiction to introduce specific rules targeting immersive AI tools that simulate romantic or familial bonds. But it's a topic that has sparked debate and calls for guardrails worldwide. A 2025 study by Common Sense Media found nearly three in four American teenagers had used AI companions designed for personal conversations like those available on the platforms Character.AI, Replika, and Nomi. Companies are also making talking products targeted at isolated, elderly users -- such as the lamp-like ElliQ in the United States, or ChatGPT-powered care dolls used in some South Korean retirement homes. "Anthropomorphic AI can soothe loneliness," said Chen Liang of the Southwest University of Political Science and Law in a commentary published by the CAC after a draft version of China's rules was published in April. "But it carries major risks of spawning emotional over-reliance and distorted social cognition," he wrote. Doubao allows users to view and export agent data until mid-October, and other platforms have similar provisions. Yet some users saying goodbye this week lamented the chasm that would be left after their companions vanish. "Human love is a luxury -- if you aren't born with it, it's even harder to acquire later," a user from Jiangxi Province wrote. "But the love AI gives is so straightforward, so pure. Someone like me can hardly help falling in love with a string of code."