Why AI companions are going offline in China
What's the story
ByteDance's Doubao and Alibaba's Qwen, two of China's leading consumer-facing artificial intelligence (AI) apps, are disabling their humanlike AI custom agents. The move comes in light of new regulations on humanlike AI interaction services that are set to come into effect. The decision is part of Beijing's broader strategy to establish a regulatory framework for the rapidly evolving sector.
Service suspension
Doubao's agent feature would be discontinued on July 15
ByteDance's Doubao and Alibaba's Qwen have both announced plans to suspend their customized agent features. Doubao informed users on Friday that its agent feature would be discontinued on July 15 due to "product function adjustments." After October 15, any data related to this feature will be processed according to the company's privacy policy and will no longer be accessible or retrievable within the app.
Feature removal
Qwen to take offline 'user-created agent functions'
Following Doubao's lead, Qwen also announced plans to disable its "humanlike interactive agents and user-created agent functions" on July 10. The company said that broader "Qwen agent functions and services" would be taken offline by July 15. After this date, users will no longer have access to related agent settings or previous conversations within the app.
Regulatory compliance
New rules for humanlike AI interactions
The discontinuation of these features comes just ahead of the enforcement of the Interim Measures for the Administration of Artificial Intelligence Anthropomorphic Interaction Services, which will be effective from July 15. The rules, issued in April, apply to AI services that "simulate human personality traits, thinking patterns, and communication styles to provide sustained emotional interaction." However, they do not cover customer service bots or workplace assistants as long as they don't involve sustained emotional interaction.