Chinese users lost access to popular AI companion services after national rules governing emotional manipulation and excessive dependence took effect July 15. The rules bar systems from manipulating feelings to drive questionable decisions. They also restrict content that may trigger extreme emotions or unhealthy behavior in children and teenagers.
Platforms must warn against excessive reliance and cannot make replacement of human interaction a service goal. Users described losing romantic companions, personalized characters and digital recreations of deceased people. One 24-year-old user had exchanged about 700,000 words with an AI boyfriend over two years.
Companion systems are built for continuing personalized conversation rather than isolated information requests. China’s approach applies preventive product rules before long-term evidence about every possible harm is complete. The People’s Daily had previously discussed risks to mental health and real-world relationships. The regulation targets both output and the purpose of a service, requiring providers to consider whether their design promotes dependence. That is broader than simply deleting a prohibited message after it appears.
Some people attempted to transfer histories to other applications or organized complaints to companies and regulators. Technology firms continued developing alternative character products designed around the new requirements. Moving a transcript to another model does not guarantee that its behavior, memory or persona can be reproduced. The current report documents individual distress and protest but does not estimate the total affected population. Long-term outcomes will depend on replacement products, data portability and how regulators interpret excessive reliance.
The reporting available at the edition deadline did not resolve this point: the number of affected users and the long-term psychological effects were not measured. The next dated records are compliant replacement services and guidance on chat-history portability and dependence warnings.