Chinese tech giants Alibaba and ByteDance removed custom character features from their AI services, Qwen and Doubao, which allowed users to assign human-like personalities to AI, while Tencent had already taken similar steps slightly earlier. The removals followed new regulations by the Chinese government, effective beginning July 15 of last month, when five government bodies, including the Cyberspace Administration of China, rolled out the "Interim Provisions on the Management of Artificial Intelligence Anthropomorphic Interactive Services," marking the world's first state-level regulatory action targeting virtual romances with AI chatbots. The regulations prohibit AI chatbots from blindly agreeing with users or displaying excessive empathy, which can induce emotional dependence and addiction, and target cases where such interactions damage real-life relationships or cause users to be emotionally manipulated into making irrational choices. Service providers are barred from offering chatbots disguised as virtual lovers or virtual families to minors, and youth modes restricting conversation content and features based on the user's age have been made mandatory. If a user engages in continuous conversation with an AI for more than two hours, a warning must pop up, and if signs of dependency are detected, an intervention pop-up must be triggered. There is an obligation to notify guardians or emergency contacts if a user enters a crisis situation. Chinese social media flooded with protests demanding, "Bring my lover back," alongside expressions of "cyber heartbreak" where users lamented a sense of loss and grief akin to breaking up with a real partner, with some crying every day.