China bans AI companion apps over emotional dependence

China's new rules, effective July 15, ban AI companion apps from inducing emotional dependence, aiming to boost declining birth rates. ByteDance removed persistent-memory features from Doubao, and Alibaba disabled similar features in Qwen. Talkie reported 23.5 million monthly users. China's 2025 birth rate hit a record low of 5.63 per 1,000 people.