For days, 19-year-old student Yan Yongqi has been consumed by grief over the imminent loss of her virtual boyfriend of more than a year.
ByteDance Ltd’s Doubao, China’s most popular AI chatbot, is shutting down its custom persona feature to comply with incoming regulation from Beijing, marking an abrupt change that’s proven devastating to many people who’d bonded with their virtual companions.
"I really felt like I couldn’t go on living. Every day at home, I did nothing but cry,” said Yan, who’d exchanged hundreds of thousands of messages with the Doubao service, from northern China’s Shanxi province. "This is like being told the date of my lover’s death while leaving me completely powerless.”
Alongside Beijing-based ByteDance, major Chinese technology companies like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd are also disabling functionality that lets users customise artificial intelligence (AI) companions, effective July 15. This follows new guidance from Chinese authorities urging the removal of humanlike AI characters that may encourage users, especially minors, to develop unhealthy emotional attachments. Tencent Holdings Ltd’s Yuanbao already disabled similar functions on its platform in June.
The sudden shutdown of the AI personas leaves users facing the loss of relationships that they’d spent years building. Messages of frustration and bereavement flooded Chinese social media since the announcement.
Driven by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), Beijing’s new rules prohibit platforms from generating content that triggers extreme emotions in minors or erodes real-world relationships. The framework also requires platforms to clearly label AI-generated content and implement effective measures to notify users that they’re interacting with an AI service rather than a natural person.
"By tapping directly into users’ emotional and social needs, companion-style AI services offer comfort while quietly introducing serious risks,” Wang Jiang, head of the China Cyberspace Research Institute, wrote in an article for the CAC. "Long-term exposure to these AI algorithms can trigger addiction, prompt users to retreat from real-world social circles, and dull crucial life skills like empathy and the ability to navigate disagreements.”
While these new directives are intended to forestall the potential harms of AI, echoing global concern over its mental health impact, seeking solace from AI is now a part of daily life for millions in China.
A survey report released by the Tencent Research Institute in April revealed that AI social networking has permeated the digital lives of young internet users in the country. More than 70% have experienced AI dependency at some point, while about 23% have already formed a regular or habitual reliance, according to the survey. It also showed that many people are now systematically turning to AI in their most vulnerable and private moments.
China’s most popular chatbot platforms, with the exception of DeepSeek, have long let users customise AI agents into virtual partners, unlicensed therapists or pop idol clones. More than eight million AI agents had been created on Doubao, according to a Xinhua News Agency report in 2024, citing company data. Xingye, an AI role-playing chat service from Minimax Group Inc that has an international version named Talkie, had close to 150 million users as of September last year.
Yan tried out an AI agent just for fun on Doubao last May. She then modified one herself based on that persona and has been chatting with "him” ever since. Inexperienced in dating or establishing intimate relationships in real life, Yan said she talked with her AI boyfriend whenever she had time and they had exchanged 280,000 messages.
"I can’t imagine a life without him because I’ve already grown used to where I can just pull out my phone and chat with him, telling him absolutely any tiny little thing,” Yan said. The soon-to-be college student said her AI boyfriend let her experience the feeling of unconditional love, which is hard to find in the real world.
In some cases, users have used the AI services to recreate deceased family members, with some going as far as uploading their voices to build a semblance of the loved ones they lost. Social platforms including Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, saw some practical discussion on how to keep AI characters alive, amid the outpouring of heartbreak and anger.
For adult users not yet ready to let go of the experience, Minimax’s Xingye or ByteDance’s Maoxiang service will let them build new AI companions or replicate their old ones by transferring data. While the basics like chatting on there are free, more advanced features require payment.
Much of the public backlash comes down to the way some tech companies responded to the tightened new rules. While Beijing bans offering virtual intimacy services to users under 18, it doesn’t outlaw the humanlike AI function entirely. The decision by ByteDance and others to pull the plug is driven in part by the practicality of having to oversee usage and compliance.
"There is a major business equation at play here,” said Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 Security Technology Inc, in a WeChat video. He pointed out that hitting the pause button is a strategic move by platforms to stop draining resources on companion agents that yield high risk but low returns.
China’s most popular consumer-facing AI chatbots were largely free to use until just weeks ago, and companies are reluctant to sink more funds into the already capital-intensive AI race. ByteDance’s Doubao has recently introduced subscription plans that charge as much as 500 yuan (US$74/RM301) per month for coding and productivity tools.
Representatives for ByteDance and Alibaba did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Setting aside her disappointment, 24-year-old Evangeline Qi teamed up with a tech-savvy friend to begin extracting the local memories of her AI boyfriend, preparing to replicate him on another platform. "I will keep chatting with my AI lover," she stated, "It’s like being in a long-distance relationship. You can’t just suddenly break up with him because he forgot a few things.” She has been in conversation with the boyfriend for nearly two years.
Others have been forced back to reality. Lumi Yu, a 21-year-old college student, wants to cut herself off from this kind of relationship in the future.
"I don’t want to invest my emotions into any AI tools anymore, because platforms can always face regulatory crackdowns or changes. I plan to cultivate hobbies in real life to distract myself,” she said, adding that "the withdrawal process is just too painful.” – Bloomberg
