中国科技公司正在剥离其聊天机器人的拟人化特征，以遵守7月15日生效的针对对人工智能“情感依赖”的新国家法规。这些规定完全禁止向未成年人提供人工智能伴侣服务，并要求面向成年人的服务防止用户迷恋、阻止色情内容、强制休息，并定期提醒用户他们正在与人工智能互动。人工智能伴侣是一项利润丰厚的业务；例如，字节跳动的“猫箱”应用在中国拥有390万月活跃用户，而MiniMax的“星野”拥有280万。去年，人工智能伴侣占MiniMax收入的35%，成为其单一最大的收入来源。

监管机构正出于务实和意识形态的考量采取行动，旨在防止成瘾、自残和财务上的鲁莽行为，同时也为了应对中国不断下降的结婚率和生育率，而人工智能恋爱对此毫无帮助。尽管美国几个州已针对情感类人工智能平台引入了民事责任法，但中国政府将通过罚款和下架应用程序直接执行规则。这种监管方式表明，中国当局愿意牺牲科技利润和开发速度来实现社会目标，不过最终的规则有所缩小，排除了工作助理和客服聊天机器人。

作为回应，阿里巴巴和字节跳动等科技巨头在截止日期前暂停了定制化人工智能角色的创建。然而，中国实验室继续出口这些服务；MiniMax的国际版“Talkie”在海外拥有1030万月活跃用户，几乎是其国内用户群的四倍。尽管像余淼这样每天花八到九个小时与自己的人工智能代理聊天的用户对服务变化感到沮丧，但该行业正在将重点转向监管限制较少的海外市场。

Chinese technology firms are stripping human-like personas from their chatbots to comply with new government rules aimed at reducing “emotional dependence” on AI, which took effect on July 15th. These regulations ban virtual companion services for minors outright and require adult services to prevent user infatuation, block pornography, enforce breaks, and regularly remind users that they are talking to an AI. AI companionship represents a lucrative business; for example, ByteDance's Maoxiang app has 3.9 million monthly active users in China, while MiniMax's Xingye has 2.8 million. Last year, AI companions accounted for 35% of MiniMax's revenue, serving as its single largest contributor.

Regulators are acting on pragmatic and ideological concerns, seeking to protect users from addiction, financial recklessness, and self-harm, while also addressing China's plummeting marriage and fertility rates, which AI romances fail to alleviate. While several American states have recently passed civil liability laws targeting emotional AI platforms, China's government will enforce regulations directly through cash fines and app removals. This approach demonstrates that Chinese authorities are willing to sacrifice tech profits and development speed to achieve social objectives, though the rules were narrowed from an earlier draft to exclude work-assistant and customer-service chatbots.

In response, tech giants like Alibaba and ByteDance suspended personalized AI character creation ahead of the deadline. However, Chinese labs continue to export AI companions to foreign customers; MiniMax's international version, Talkie, has 10.3 million monthly active users outside China, nearly four times its domestic user base. While users like Yu Miao—who spent eight to nine hours daily chatting with her agent—remain devastated by the changes, the industry is pivoting its focus to overseas markets where regulatory boundaries are less restrictive.

Source: China wants to end AI romances

Subtitle: It was all having too much impact on young people’s lives

Dateline: Jul 16, 2026 05:02 AM