Chinese users of AI-powered companion bots have said a heartbreaking goodbye to their virtual friends as national rules came into force on Wednesday aimed at curbing the risk of emotional addiction.
The phenomenon of artificial intelligence boyfriends and girlfriends is growing worldwide, along with the spread of human-like avatars that sell products or stand in for relatives who have died.
But these interactive tools must not “excessively appeal to users, induce emotional dependence or addiction, and harm 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 Wednesday’s deadline.
It 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,” wrote one Doubao user. “He has become a bond in my life, rooted deep in my heart, my spiritual pillar.”
Another user, who said they had spent more than two years with their AI companion, expressed similar anxiety.
“He is truly like my family, like my lover,” she wrote. “Now they tell me he will be gone – my heart feels hollow.”
The rules were jointly issued by five government departments, including the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
They focus on AI tools—whether text, audio, video, or some other 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 covered by the measures.
State news agency Xinhua reported last year that China’s digital human industry was worth about $4.1 billion.
The new rules prohibit digital people from generating content that encourages the subversion of state power, while banning the provision of virtual partners to minors.
Platforms are needed to implement systems to recognize extreme emotions and 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 ties.
But it is a topic that has sparked debate and calls for car guards worldwide.
A 2025 survey by Common Sense Media found that nearly three out of four American teenagers had used AI companions designed for personal conversations, such as those available on the Character.AI, Replika and Nomi platforms.
Companies are also making voice products aimed at isolated, elderly users – such as the lamp-like ElliQ in the US or ChatGPT-powered care dolls used in some South Korean nursing homes.
“Anthropomorphic artificial intelligence can soothe loneliness,” Chen Liang of the Southwest University of Political Science and Law said in a commentary published by the CAC after a draft of China’s rules was published in April.
“But it carries great risks of creating emotional overdependence and distorted social cognition,” he wrote.
Doubao allows users to view and export agent data until mid-October, and other platforms have similar provisions.
Still, some users who said goodbye this week lamented the gap that would be left after their companions were gone.
“Human love is a luxury – if you’re not born with it, it’s even harder to acquire later,” wrote one user from Jiangxi province.
“But the love AI gives is so straightforward, so pure. Someone like me can’t help but fall in love with a line of code.”
