China fines firms for impersonating AI platforms, running scam websites
China's top market regulator recently fined multiple companies and an individual for a range of offenses, including impersonating AI platforms such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek.
Offenses included tricking users into paying for fake services, copying website designs, hacking servers for confidential code, and even making AI-powered scam tools.
One company got caught running a WeChat service posing as an official Chinese version of the OpenAI chatbot, while another copied DeepSeek's fonts, icons and page design to trick users into paying for a knock-off 'DeepSeek local deployment' service.
Fines ranged from 5,000 yuan to 360,000 yuan
Fines ranged from 5,000 yuan to 360,000 yuan depending on the offense—like an engineer who hacked into servers or a firm that built AI scam software for shady loan agencies.
This crackdown follows a wave of knock-off sites earlier in 2025 that confused users and spread false ads.
To keep things fair going forward, regulators have proposed new anti-monopoly guidelines to address algorithm-driven price manipulation on apps you probably use every day—think shopping or food delivery—hoping to make the AI scene safer and more transparent for everyone.