China just made it illegal to fall in love with chatbots.
On Wednesday, the world's most populous nation and second-largest economy enacted new legislation and regulations that:
- Make virtual relationships with chatbots illegal for minors
- Require AI companies to alert a minor's emergency contact if an emotional crisis is detected
- Bans companies from building chatbots designed to be virtual companions
Chinese tech giants Alibaba and ByteDance informed users on Wednesday that some features would be disabled, due to the new legislation. And Bloomberg reports that there are people in China grieving the impending "death" of their virtual companions.
In the US, New York and California have both enacted legislation putting limits on companion chatbots. But the Chinese government went a step further with full bans.
This comes at a time when, for the first time, more people globally trust China to do good in the world than the US, according to new data from Pew Research.
Of course, China's regulation of companion chatbots is partly due to AI safety and partly due to population decline. In 2025, China's population shrank for the fourth year in a row as the country's birth rate hit an all-time low.
Beyond banning chatbot relationships, China is also offering child-care subsidies, and it has ended its decades-long one-child policy that was aimed at population control.
In general, the country wants to encourage young people to be in real-life relationships and minimize the distractions and drawbacks that could keep them from starting families.
There are also forces within Chinese society that have deep mistrust of AI, similar to the US. For example, Chinese regulators warned in a September 2025 policy document that AI could transform "traditional views on employment, fertility, and education" that could undermine the country's core values.
Our Deeper View #
It doesn't take intense reflection to see the challenges that could result from chatbot companions that imitate human behaviors. With the US federal government continuing to hold back on broader AI legislation, expect to see more US states leading the way on guidelines for this and other topics in AI regulation. In light of Demis Hassabis's call for broader AI safety guidelines and a public-private partnership, the topic of AI ethics and societal impact continues to gain momentum. What's needed next is broader dialogue so that more people in more places can be part of the conversation around the ways we want to control and channel the capabilities of the technology.