News-July-06-2026
July 6, 2026 — Chinese consumer AI platforms began shutting down custom and humanlike agent features as national rules for anthropomorphic AI interaction services approached their July 15 effective date.[1][2]
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ByteDance and Alibaba disable custom AI agents ahead of China rules
ByteDance's Doubao and Alibaba's Qwen announced shutdowns of user-created or humanlike AI agent functions days before China's Interim Measures on anthropomorphic AI interaction services take effect on July 15.[1][2] Doubao said its agent feature would go offline on July 15, while Qwen said humanlike interactive agents and user-created agents would be disabled on July 10 and broader agent functions would go offline by July 15.[1] TechNode reported that both companies said users would retain temporary access to agent configurations and chat histories, but related data would no longer be recoverable after October 15, 2026.[2] The Next Web reported that the rules target bots offering sustained emotional interaction while sparing workplace and productivity agents, and that Tencent had removed a similar Yuanbao feature in June.[1]
The episode is significant for AI law because it shows Chinese platforms preemptively redesigning consumer-facing AI companion and role-play products to comply with an anthropomorphic-interaction regime before the rules formally take effect.[1][2]