Chinese users of AI companion apps are losing access to virtual partners after major technology companies began withdrawing or limiting such services to comply with new government regulations. Among them is 24-year-old Li Linlin, who said she cried for days after losing access to her AI boyfriend.

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,…