- China has implemented laws to crack down on personal AI-generated apps
- The new rules say AI tools can no longer induce emotions or harm real-life connections.
- Tech giants have shut down their services, leaving users going through a nationwide breakup.
The Chinese government is introducing new regulations designed to clamp down on AI-generated romantic partners; Yes, they actually exist.
Issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and four other government departments, the regulations state that AI tools can no longer “overly serve users, induce emotional dependence or addiction, and harm users’ real interpersonal relationships,” while prohibiting virtual relationships with minors. This came into effect on July 15.
Chinese tech giants including ByteDance, Tencent and Alibaba each have their own platforms (the most famous being ByteDance’s Doubao) that allow users to generate their own AI companions designed to express human-like emotions. Following new laws, companion chatbots must now undergo evaluation before they are publicly available and allow the government to shut them down if they are deemed unsafe.
According to The Wall Street Journal ($/£), these regulations could also apply to regular AI chatbots if they respond to human prompts with responses that may be considered overly emotional.
However, instead of complying with the new laws, the tech giants have completely disabled some of their personalized features, causing virtual breakups across the country. So why are these government laws being enacted now? To put it plainly, not enough babies are being born.
Users opt for virtual romance over human connection
For the past four consecutive years, China’s birth rates have declined significantly, falling to a record number in 2025, as The Wall Street Journal also reports. Concerns about declining birth rates are likely to be one of the catalysts behind the new regulations, and the Chinese government fears that AI characters on services like Doubao are preventing users from forming real-life relationships and having children.
The crackdown on AI companies has hit users like a ton of bricks, and now they are starting to break their silence.
Speaking to Bloomberg ($/£), 19-year-old student Yan Yongqi spoke about her sudden distress following the police action, which resulted in the loss of her AI partner of more than a year. “I really felt like I couldn’t go on living. Every day at home I did nothing but cry,” she said, adding, “It’s like being told the date of my lover’s death and it left me completely helpless.”
On paper, it sounds like some sort of dystopian sci-fi story, but believe it or not, this is a growing problem in regions like China, where artificial intelligence services are being developed to mimic human compassion. It’s even getting to the point where users are creating AI versions of their ex-partners to help them get over a breakup, but it’s not just an issue affecting China.
In May, we spoke to a user from the UK who confessed to falling in love with ChatGPT after using the service as a means of therapy to help with his mental health issues. Despite the user’s awareness of the problem, we also spoke to therapist Amy Sutton, who shed light on broader issues.
“Unfortunately, this feels like a failure of human services rather than an integral benefit of the technology itself,” he shared, later adding that “AI companion apps are designed for maximum engagement, to keep users subscribed and enthralled,” he says. “ChatGPT was not designed to be a therapeutic intervention.”
With this in mind, it’s a pretty disturbing circumstance, and services like therapy are becoming increasingly financially unattainable for those who truly need them. At the same time, there is a level of duty and care that influential AI companies must prioritize for users who think their services are the be-all and end-all of their needs.
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