The Cyberspace Administration of China is cracking down on “digital humans,” with incoming regulations that will soon require labeling of AI personalities and ban programs that could harm children or lead to addiction.

Those draft regulations, first reported in English by Reuters, would force AI companies to affix prominent “digital human” labels on content featuring AI generated characters. They’d also restrict companies that provide “virtual intimate relationships” with AI from plying their services to anyone under the age of 18.

The restrictions would also crack down on AI deepfakes, and specifically content mimicking actual people, China’s Xinhua noted. Under the new regulations, no individual or organization will be allowed to generate facsimiles of other people without their consent.

“Anyone who violates the provisions of these measures shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of laws and administrative regulations, and shall bear civil liability in accordance with the law,” the proposed legislations declare.

Before the regulations becomes official, they’ll have to pass a rigorous public comment period, which ends on May 6. But even as a draft, they stand in sharp contrast to the situation in the United States, where AI deepfakes are rampant, and numerous children and adults have lost their lives after forming dangerous relationships with AI personalities. Even more have spiraled into parasocial delusions with the non-human AI entities, leading to a broad range of harms and trauma that can leave a lasting impact.

In the US, any accountability through the courts has been slow coming. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, was facing a total of eight separate lawsuits as recently as January, alleging that extensive use caused emotional and psychological harm. Horrifyingly, five of those cases involved suicide.

Any hope for strict, Chinese-style regulations from the federal government is probably an extreme longshot, at least under the current administration. With a rising number of political action committees funded by billion-dollar tech industry corporations and Trump family allies, the chances at avoiding the president’s legislative agenda — which is really about blocking regulatory legislation — are looking grim.

Still, it’s refreshing to see the kind of AI safeguards that are possible on a national level — if only the government wasn’t so busy building the runway for the very industry causing the damage.

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