Alibaba Group and ByteDance will take offline persona-based chatbot features on July 15, when China’s new rules governing human-like AI services come into force.
On Saturday Alibaba’s Qianwen and ByteDance’s Doubao notified users they will discontinue services that let people build and chat with customizable AI characters, Caixin reported.
The move affects the companies’ public AI assistants, products that let users create distinct, human-like agents for conversation and role play.
Neither company responded to requests for comment.
The takedown aligns with Beijing’s stepped-up regulatory attention to how AI systems present and simulate human behaviour, which the notice frames as the reason for the timing.
