Overview
- Leading Chinese apps began notifying users and disabled custom agent features, with shutdowns taking effect on July 15.
- The new Interim Measures target AI that simulates human personalities and provides sustained emotional interaction while exempting non-emotional tools such as customer‑service bots and workplace assistants.
- ByteDance’s Doubao, Alibaba’s Qwen and reports say Tencent’s Yuanbao have all taken customizable companion functions offline and chose shutdowns over costly reengineering.
- Users immediately lost access to agent settings and past chats and must export data before company deadlines with Doubao warning that related data will be unrecoverable after October 15.
- China’s rules mark the first national framework for ‘emotional’ AI and are likely to shape global policy and create divergent domestic versus international product versions.