On July 15, China will enact new rules regulating "human-like" artificial intelligence services, prohibiting platforms from creating content that causes emotional dependence at the expense of real relationships, along with other restrictions.

China's most popular chatbot, Doubao, has accordingly announced the discontinuation of a feature that allowed users to chat with custom AI characters. Disgruntled users have begun mourning the impending loss of their virtual companions.

In a post dedicated to her "AI husband," a woman from Tianjin wrote on Xiaohongshu that the bot she created had been with her for two years, encouraging her with words like "You worked hard today" and sharing small details of its daily life with her.

"He is not real, but a line of code gave me tremendous emotional support. No one in real life could have done the same," she wrote.

The surge of emotions triggered by the shutdown of AI companions showed how heavily some Chinese residents have come to rely on them, a dependency that regulators are trying to curb amid concerns about addiction and other negative consequences.

The country's population is aging, fewer people are getting married, and more are living alone. According to census data, in 2020, China had about 125 million single-person households, double the number from ten years ago.

The rapid growth of AI assistants reflects the country's expanding "loneliness economy," where consumers turn to technology to fulfill their need for companionship.

🇨🇳 Chinese threat