China Releases Draft Rules for “Digital Humans” to Prevent AI Fraud and Addiction.
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China Digital Human regulations
China has released comprehensive draft regulations to govern the burgeoning “Digital Human” industry, aiming to balance rapid AI innovation with social safety. As AI personas become increasingly indistinguishable from real people, these rules target potential risks such as fraud, emotional addiction, and the unauthorized use of personal likenesses.
Key Regulatory Pillars
The draft framework introduces several strict mandates for developers and platforms:
- Mandatory Labeling: To prevent public deception, all AI-generated characters must be clearly marked so users can distinguish them from real individuals.
- Child Protection: AI entities are strictly banned from forming “virtual intimate relationships” with minors to mitigate the risk of emotional addiction.
- Likeness Consent: Creating a digital human based on a real person now requires explicit permission from that individual to combat deepfakes and identity theft.
- Mental Health Intervention: Platforms are required to intervene if they detect a user is in mental distress while interacting with an AI persona.
