Chinese tech companies ByteDance and Alibaba – the former best known for TikTok, the latter for e-commerce – will remove from their platforms the features that allow the creation of virtual characters to chat with. This is not a commercial choice, but an adjustment to the new – and stricter – Chinese regulations on interactions with artificial intelligence systems.
WHAT WILL CHANGE ON DOUBAO AND QWEN
From July 15th on Doubao, the AI chatbot developed by ByteDance and one of the most popular in China, the function that allows users to create and customize AI personas, that is virtual characters – but with a human appearance – to converse with, will no longer be available.
According to Bloomberg, Doubao users have already received a notification directing them to a separate application. A similar notice has also been issued by Alibaba’s Qwen and Tencent’s Yuanbao, the group that owns the “super-app” WeChat.
– Also read: Artificial intelligence, all the plans of Chinese Tencent for the “super-app” WeChat
WHAT THE NEW CHINESE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REGULATIONS PROVIDE
For some time, the main Chinese AI platforms have allowed users to create, through simple text prompts, virtual characters endowed with their own “personality,” who can take on the roles of friends, partners, advisors, or even therapists.
AI personas offer a much more engaging interaction compared to traditional chatbots, but they can also foster excessive psychological involvement by users. This is why Beijing authorities want to subject these interactions to greater controls to prevent more vulnerable users – such as minors, for example – from developing forms of emotional dependency on these virtual characters, to the point of confusing digital relationships with real ones and, in extreme cases, adopting self-harming or suicidal behaviors.
