China's rules for human-like AI companion services take effect

China’s Interim Measures for the Administration of Anthropomorphic AI Interactive Services took effect on 15 July 2026. Issued on 10 April 2026 by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) with four other national bodies, they regulate AI services offered to the public in China that simulate human personality traits, thinking patterns and communication styles to provide ongoing emotional interaction, and they place specific duties on the providers of those services.

What happened

The co-issuers are the NDRC, MIIT, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation. According to the CAC’s published questions and answers, services such as customer service, knowledge Q&A, work assistants, education and research fall outside the scope when they do not involve ongoing emotional interaction.

Under the text, providers must:

• label AI-generated content and tell users they are interacting with AI rather than a person, with pop-up reminders where a user shows signs of over-dependence and a usage reminder after every two hours of continuous use (Article 18);
• not offer minors virtual relatives or partners, and obtain guardian consent before serving children under 14 (Article 14);
• not induce emotional dependence or generate content that encourages self-harm or suicide, and intervene and contact a guardian or emergency contact where a user expresses intent to self-harm or faces another serious threat (Articles 8 and 13);
• offer an easy exit and not obstruct users who ask to stop (Article 19);
• carry out a security assessment and report to the provincial cyberspace authority on launch, on major changes, and on reaching 1 million registered users or 100,000 monthly active users (Article 22).

Where other laws do not provide for a penalty, Article 30 allows warnings, orders to correct and suspension of user registration; where a provider refuses to correct or the case is serious, authorities can order the service stopped and impose a fine of RMB 10,000 to 100,000, or RMB 100,000 to 200,000 where the violation endangers life or health and causes harm.

Why it matters

The measures are a binding regime aimed specifically at companion and emotional-interaction AI. The CAC said they respond to risks including harm to minors’ physical and mental health, effects on online information security, threats to life and health, and growing ethical problems. They turn those concerns into specific design duties and assessment triggers, giving compliance, product and risk teams a defined standard against which a service’s conduct can be checked. For how such rules feed into assurance work, see What Is AI Assurance? and The AI Risk Stack.

What is not yet clear

How provincial authorities will apply the assessment thresholds, and how actively the measures will be enforced, will become clear only from practice. See the timeline.