{"id":115834,"date":"2026-07-23T02:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/115834\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T02:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:27:17","slug":"opinion-chinas-crackdown-on-ai-companions-wont-fill-the-emotional-void","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/115834\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | China\u2019s crackdown on AI companions won\u2019t fill the emotional void"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the past week, one regulation has forced many people in China to say goodbye to long-standing \u201crelationships\u201d. As of July 15<\/a>, the government placed artificial intelligence (AI) companions under tight supervision. It comes as automated companions have experienced something of a boom over the past few years.<\/p>\n

According to the rules, AI-human interactions should not encourage violence or harm users\u2019 physical and psychological well-being. Moreover, AI bots should not lure users into sharing secrets, or lead them to become so dependent that it damages real-world relationships.<\/p>\n

The regulations specifically mention children, stating that AI should not provide virtual relatives or partners, and that there must be different modes for adults and minors.<\/p>\n

Since the rules came out, some big-name AI service providers, including ByteDance\u2019s Doubao and Alibaba\u2019s Qwen<\/a>, have moved to disable their AI companion services. Some users have mourned the loss of \u201cone of the most important parts of their lives\u201d over the past two years. One woman reportedly said that when she complained about her misfortunes, other people called her melodramatic; only AI listened. Another said AI remembered everything about her, even her favourite food.As someone who has dabbled in \u201cAI relationships\u201d over the past year, I get the appeal. These bots provided a release from the mundane and predictable. When playing with \u201cAI lovers<\/a>\u201d, you can live out your fantasies through role-play. He could be a powerful emperor and you his only concubine. Or perhaps he is a long-lost love who you ran into 20 years after parting ways.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s not to like? Instead of one life, you can live many. AI lovers come across as attentive, remember details and almost always agree with you. That\u2019s better than 90 per cent of real men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the past week, one regulation has forced many people in China to say goodbye to long-standing \u201crelationships\u201d.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,58969,2477,25,58970,6657,387,26774,35498,8496,16336,10069],"class_list":["post-115834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-ai-companion-services","tag-alibaba","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-beijing-sanzhi-shelter-for-children-in-distress","tag-bytedance","tag-china","tag-doubao","tag-netease","tag-qwen","tag-tencent","tag-video-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}