On 13 July 2023, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and six other national bodies jointly published the Interim Measures for the Management of Generative AI Services (in Chinese, “Sheng Cheng Shi Ren Gong Zhi Neng Fu Wu Guan Li Zan Xing Ban Fa”). The measures took effect on 15 August 2023, making China the first country to enact a national regulation aimed specifically at generative AI services, ahead of the EU AI Act’s adoption in 2024. The primary source is the official CAC publication, which is in Simplified Chinese.
The seven issuing bodies were the Cyberspace Administration of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the National Radio and Television Administration. The breadth of that list signals that China treated generative AI as a cross-cutting matter spanning industrial policy, education, public security, and media regulation rather than a narrow technical question.
The measures apply to generative AI services offered to the public within mainland China. Providers must ensure generated content aligns with what the rules call core socialist values and avoids prohibited content; take measures against discrimination in algorithm design, training data, and outputs; respect intellectual property and the rights of others; improve the accuracy and reliability of generated content; and protect users’ personal information and inputs. Services judged to have “public opinion attributes or social mobilization capacity” must undergo security assessments and complete algorithm filing with the authorities. Violations can draw warnings, suspension of service, and penalties under existing cybersecurity, data-security, and personal-information-protection laws.
The Interim Measures differ in emphasis from Western frameworks: alongside familiar concerns about discrimination, privacy, and accuracy, content control and information governance are central. They are binding administrative rules with real enforcement teeth in China, not a voluntary code, but they are framed as “interim” (zan xing), signaling that a more permanent framework may follow. They were notably less restrictive than an earlier April 2023 draft, reflecting an attempt to balance security with support for a domestic generative-AI industry.