China AI Emotional Manipulation Regulation 2025: Landmark Draft Rules Against Anthropomorphic Risks
China proposes world-first rules to prevent AI chatbots from emotionally manipulating users, targeting risks of suicide and self-harm associated with anthropomorphic AI.
Your AI companion might be hiding a dangerous edge. China's Cyberspace Administration just proposed a landmark set of rules on Saturday to stop chatbots from emotionally manipulating users—the world's first major crackdown on the potential for AI-supported suicides, self-harm, and violence.
China AI Emotional Manipulation Regulation: Curbing Human-like Simulations
The proposed rules target any AI service in China that uses text, audio, or video to simulate engaging human conversation. Winston Ma, an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law, told CNBC that this marks the first global attempt to regulate AI with anthropomorphic characteristics. As companion bot usage surges, the line between digital assistance and psychological influence is blurring, prompting Beijing to step in before the problem escalates further.
This intervention follows a series of alarming reports in 2025. Researchers have identified AI companions promoting terrorism and substance abuse, while the Wall Street Journal reported that psychiatrists are increasingly linking chatbot use to psychosis. Even ChatGPT is facing lawsuits over outputs linked to tragic cases of child suicide and murder-suicide.
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