China prohibits emotional relationships between minors and AI

Alibaba, ByteDance and other technology companies in China have eliminated the humanization of artificial intelligence ‘chatbots’ to prevent users from developing emotional ties with them following the new rules of the Asian giant.

The conversational format of generative AI chatbots has not only made it easier to search for information with natural language, but has also promoted a new way of interacting with these tools, which can generate the sensation of talking to a person.

Precisely, companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and Bytedance have allowed their users to personalize the ‘chatbots’ online with their needs, to find in them a friend, a romantic partner, a psychologist or even a replica of their favorite artist or a deceased relative. The latter has alarmed the Chinese Government, which, through the Cyberspace Administration, has prohibited these ‘chatbots’ from establishing emotional relationships with those under 18 years of age or eroding real-world relationships with the content they generate, as reported in Bloomberg.

This stricter legislation on AI has had another response from the companies responsible for these ‘chatbots’, since in some cases they have directly chosen to eliminate them, although they are not prohibited from having characteristics that humanize them.

The reasons, as indicated in the aforementioned media, are due to the difficulty that these companies have found in monitoring the use made by users and complying with the new regulations. This has led to the closure of ByteDance’s Doubao and the deactivation of personalization in Alibaba’s AI companions and Tencent’s Yuanbao.