China's leading chatbots to ditch AI personas as Beijing tightens rules

Artificial intelligence Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent, NetEase among those pulling such personalized features Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance are all moving to align with China's new rules on AI personas. (Source photos by Getty Images) CISSY ZHOU July 6, 2026 14:41 JST HONG KONG -- Chinese tech giants including Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent have all announced plans to disable AI persona features as Beijing tightens its regulatory framework on the rapidly advancing AI industry. Read Next Semiconductors Japan AI chip startup taps Malaysia's Oppstar to gear up for production Trading Asia Taiwan's wealth flows into Japan real estate as mainland Chinese retreat Electronics Japan's MinebeaMitsumi to boost bearings output for AI data centers Artificial intelligence Japan eyes AI-powered comeback in factory robot race with China, Europe Semiconductors Asahi Kasei to build Taiwan processing plant for AI chip material Technology Apple to launch 5 new iPhone models to gain market share amid memory crunch Latest on Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence Japan eyes AI-powered comeback in factory robot race with China, Europe Artificial intelligence Kawasaki Heavy to raise over $1bn via new shares, bonds for AI investment Artificial intelligence Qualcomm challenges Nvidia's AI grip with chip that ditches HBM