China's largest technology firms have switched off the customizable AI companion features at the heart of their chatbots, complying with new national rules on human-like AI that took effect on July 15, 2026, and leaving many users who had bonded with virtual partners distraught.
July 15, 2026 · China AI Regulation
China Switches Off AI Companions Overnight
ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent disabled the customizable human-like AI persona features at the heart of their chatbots — complying with the world's first rules targeting emotional, human-like AI, and leaving devoted users distraught.
8M+
AI companions created on Doubao alone — the feature now disabled
3
Top platforms — ByteDance, Alibaba, Tencent — pulled personas at once
1st
Rules of their kind globally to target human-like emotional AI
A comparable companion service lost nearly half its users
Monthly active users — peak vs. now
How the shutdown rolled out
JUNE 2026
Tencent Yuanbao
Removes similar persona features first
→
~JULY 10
Alibaba Qwen
Disables human-like and user-created agents
→
JULY 15
Doubao + rules live
Agents offline; data unrecoverable after Oct 15
Policy Rationale
Prevent harmful content and protect minors
Tighten content safety and data protection
Steer industry toward task-oriented agents
Task use in work, education, service stays exempt
User Fallout
"Devastated" and "grief" over lost companions
A 19-year-old mourned a year-long virtual boyfriend
Personas are not portable — only chat downloads
Alternatives face memory limits, weaker voice, paywalls
China's approach to affective AI is diverging sharply from other markets — while services like Character.AI still offer user-created personas abroad, a hugely popular consumer feature vanished at home almost overnight once regulation reshaped what companies were willing to offer.
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