The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has unveiled a landmark draft of the “Provisional Measures on the Administration of Human-Like Interactive AI Services,” targeting the growing sector of AI companions and emotional chatbots. The regulations represent a strategic move into “psychological governance” to preserve social stability as nearly 46% of university students adopt virtual companions.
Under the proposed mandate, developers of “AI companions” must implement aggressive anti-addiction measures, including mandatory “take a break” prompts after two hours of use and active intervention if a user develops an emotional dependency on the algorithm. Furthermore, the regulations establish critical “red lines”: AI must align with Socialist Core Values and is strictly prohibited from encouraging social withdrawal or behaviors that could impact national birth rates. In a move toward enhanced safety, systems must also immediately hand off interactions to human emergency responders if thoughts of self-harm are detected.
Analysts suggest the move is intended to prevent virtual relationships from replacing real-world social structures while ensuring that high-risk emotional AI does not manipulate public opinion.
