India, Oct. 4 -- Since July 15, 2026, a chatbot in China must remind its user, every two hours, that it is talking to a machine. The obligation sits in the Interim Measures on anthropomorphic artificial intelligence interactive services, issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China. Providers must disclose that the interlocutor is synthetic, intervene when a user shows dependence, and keep minors away from virtual romance without parental consent. ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have already trimmed or switched off companion features. One may find the rule paternalistic, or quaint, or shrewd. What one cannot call it is absent.

That is worth remembering when reading what American artificial intelligence companies are now asking of thei...