π€ China's AI Companion Ban Is Live β Doubao and Qwen Shut Down Agent Features Today
China's new anthropomorphic AI rules officially took effect July 15, forcing ByteDance's Doubao and Alibaba's Qwen to permanently kill their custom AI companion and agent features. Users can view old agent data in read-only mode until October 15, then it's gone for good. The regulation mandates anti-addiction systems and instant-exit mechanisms that are architecturally incompatible with the kind of persistent emotional AI relationships these apps were built around. Think rules like this will spread to Western regulators?