ByteDance and Alibaba shut AI companion features July 15 under China's new anthropomorphic-AI law
ByteDance's Doubao and Alibaba's Qwen will both discontinue user-created AI agents on July 15, 2026 — the day China's Interim Measures for Anthropomorphic AI Interaction Services take effect — with saved configurations viewable but unrecoverable after October 15. The simultaneous shutdowns pull an entire category of consumer AI-companion products offline at once, marking user-generated anthropomorphic agents in China as a regulated class, and follow Tencent's Yuanbao removing a similar feature in June.
Source: technode.com ↗
After the shutdown, users will no longer be able to create new AI agents, while all existing user-created agents will also stop functioning.
ByteDance and Alibaba joint announcement
Why this matters
- → China eliminates user-generated AI companion category in single regulatory stroke.
- → Establishes anthropomorphic AI as governed product class, not experimental feature.
- → Sets precedent for how Beijing controls conversational AI consumer products.
China's AI companion purge