China's Doubao and Qwen to Shut Down Personalized AI Agents on July 15 Over Government Regulation

ByteDance's Doubao and Alibaba's Qwen, two of China's leading large language model platforms, have announced they will disable personalized AI agent features on July 15 to comply with government regulatory requirements.

According to reports from Global Times, the decision covers the modules on both platforms that allow users to create and customize their own AI assistants. The shutdown scope includes all personalized agent services that support custom behavior, role settings, and interaction patterns.

The Chinese government has steadily tightened its oversight of the AI industry, particularly in the large model and generative AI space. The Interim Measures for the Management of Generative AI Services, introduced in 2023, require service providers to ensure content safety, protect user privacy, and prevent algorithmic misuse.

Personalized AI agents — which let users tailor specific roles, knowledge bases, and conversational styles — have become a regulatory focus due to their more complex data collection and content generation control requirements.

For Doubao and Qwen, disabling this functionality means redesigning their product architecture to bring personalization capabilities within a compliant framework, or exploring entirely new technical approaches. Neither company has announced when similar features might return in a compliant form.

This development sets a precedent for the broader Chinese AI industry. Other domestic large model providers may need to assess whether their personalized AI agent offerings meet the latest regulatory standards and prepare accordingly.

For users, any personalized AI agents they have already created will become inaccessible after July 15. Users should back up important conversation records and configurations before the deadline. The key question going forward is what alternatives Doubao and Qwen will offer to meet user demand for personalized AI interactions.