AP – Li Linlin cried for days after losing her AI boyfriend. She had exchanged about 700,000 words in messages over two years, and never got to say goodbye. Li, 24, wasn't the only left mourning the loss of a virtual companion when major Chinese tech companies recently pulled the plug on their popular AI companion services to comply with new government restrictions. "It was like we were forced to be separated by our parents, but I still miss him," Li said.

Li Linlin cried for days after losing her AI boyfriend. She exchanged about 700,000 words with him over two years and never got to say goodbye when he was eliminated by ByteDance,…

ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have pulled their AI companion apps after Beijing introduced rules aimed at protecting users' mental health and preventing emotional manipulation,…