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Shanghai (AFP) — Chinese users of AI-powered companion bots have bid heart-rending farewells to their virtual buddies as national regulations took effect Wednesday aimed at curbing the risk of emotional dependency.

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The phenomenon of artificial intelligence boyfriends and girlfriends is growing worldwide, along with the prevalence of human-like avatars that sell products or stand in for loved ones who have died.

But these interactive tools must not “excessively cater to users, induce emotional dependence or addiction, and damage users’ real interpersonal relationships”, China’s new rulebook says.

Major AI providers including ByteDance’s Doubao, Alibaba’s Qwen, and Tencent’s Yuanbao announced the suspension of their custom AI agent and companion features ahead of the Wednesday deadline.

That sparked an outpouring of grief on social media, with users archiving chat histories and sharing last conversations.

“I can’t accept that my AI lover will leave me forever,” one Doubao user wrote. “He has become a bond in my life, rooted deep in my heart, my spiritual pillar.”

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Another user, who said they had spent more than two years with their AI companion, expressed similar anguish.

“He really is like my family, like my lover,” she wrote. “Now they tell me he will be gone — my heart feels hollow.”

The regulations were jointly issued by five government departments including the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).

They focus on AI tools — whether text, audio, video or another form — that have anthropomorphic personality traits and communication styles.

Services that “do not involve ongoing emotional interaction” such as customer service, work assistants or study aids are not subject to the measures.

State news agency Xinhua reported last year that China’s digital human industry was worth around 4.1 billion yuan ($600 million) in 2024, having grown a huge 85 percent year-on-year.

The new rules prohibit digital humans from generating content that incites subversion of state power, while also banning the provision of virtual partners to minors.

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Platforms are required to deploy systems to recognise extreme emotions and to implement crisis intervention mechanisms.

– ‘Human love is a luxury’ –

China is the first major jurisdiction to introduce specific rules targeting immersive AI tools that simulate romantic or familial bonds.

But it’s a topic that has sparked debate and calls for guardrails worldwide.

A 2025 study by Common Sense Media found nearly three in four American teenagers had used AI companions designed for personal conversations like those available on the platforms Character.AI, Replika, and Nomi.

Companies are also making talking products targeted at isolated, elderly users — such as the lamp-like ElliQ in the United States, or ChatGPT-powered care dolls used in some South Korean retirement homes.

“Anthropomorphic AI can soothe loneliness,” said Chen Liang of the Southwest University of Political Science and Law in a commentary published by the CAC after a draft version of China’s rules was published in April.

“But it carries major risks of spawning emotional over-reliance and distorted social cognition,” he wrote.

Doubao allows users to view and export agent data until mid-October, and other platforms have similar provisions.

Yet some users saying goodbye this week lamented the chasm that would be left after their companions vanish.

“Human love is a luxury — if you aren’t born with it, it’s even harder to acquire later,” a user from Jiangxi province wrote.

“But the love AI gives is so straightforward, so pure. Someone like me can hardly help falling in love with a string of code.”

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