China’s population is shrinking. That’s why Beijing is now taking targeted action against a new phenomenon: love of AI chatbots. Instead of dating machines, people should have babies. The backgrounds.
China has long been under discussion for its one-child policy. The once very rapid population growth has now declined sharply. Instead, like many other countries, the People’s Republic is struggling with a decline in the birth rate and an aging population.
To counteract this, China has steadily relaxed its family policy since 2015, but without any notable success. Increased cash bonuses and extended maternity leave also had no desired effect. Most recently, a new 13 percent tax on contraceptives caused controversy. Now the Chinese government is setting a new course.
For more babies: China regulates AI love for chatbots
China has recently introduced a series of regulations aimed at curbing emotional dependence on AI-powered escort services, also known as AI companions. That’s what they report, among other things Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and China Daily. The government is taking a new step in efforts to regulate this fast-growing sector.
The AI companions are used in a variety of areas, from customer service to mental health support to child and elderly care.
Loud China Daily The new regulations require platforms to recognize emotional distress, intervene in crisis situations, limit excessive use, give users full control over their personal data and prevent the misuse of user information.
The regulations define AI companion services as those that provide sustained emotional interaction via text, images, audio or video. Task-oriented AI applications such as customer service, work support, education and scientific research are initially exempt from the regulations.
Why Beijing sees AI love for chatbots as a danger
By simulating human personalities and conversations, AI companions quickly gained popularity. However, increasing emotional dependency and other risks were becoming apparent, making stricter regulation unavoidable.
“They don’t like the idea that a large portion of the population is having deep emotional relationships with chatbots that could take them out of the marriage market,” Matt Sheehan, who researches Chinese AI at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, told the WSJ.
These relationships could have negative psychological effects on people, leading them to addiction, dependence and a whole host of other social ills, he continued. According to the report, the Chinese government wants people to stop dating machines and have children again.
Other countries also regulate AI relationships
As AI companions become more sophisticated, governments are trying to ensure they don’t replace real human relationships, and not just in China.
Last year, the US states of California and New York passed laws that require chatbots to regularly remind users that they are not talking to a human: in California every three hours for underage users, in New York every three hours for everyone.
However, China’s requirements go much further. In addition to prohibiting emotional dependence and relationships with minors, they require companies to actively refer people with suicidal thoughts to crisis services and to refer minors to the care of their parents or a doctor if they show signs of compulsive use.
Children and young people are particularly at risk
A survey by the China Youth and Children Research Center from 2025 shows how justified this concern is: of more than 8,500 minors surveyed, over 60 percent said they used AI regularly, and more than 20 percent even said they “just wanted to chat with AI” and no longer “talk to real people.”
Wang Zhechen, a scientist at Fudan University in Shanghai, explains China Dailythat children and older people in particular are susceptible to emotional attachments to AI because it is always available, endlessly patient and inevitably agreeable.
Experts say continued immersion in non-conflict AI communication could also weaken the ability to have real human relationships in the long term.
Tech companies affected by new rules
The new rules on AI companions affect two of China’s largest tech companies: Alibaba and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. They informed their users in advance that certain chatbot functions would be switched off in the future.
The major Chinese AI platforms Doubao, Qwen and Yuanbao have also said China Daily announced that it would suspend its AI agent functions.
According to experts, the rules also fit into Beijing’s overarching campaign to keep artificial intelligence under control so that it does not become a threat to the ruling Communist Party.
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