May 2026ChinaDoubao (reported)
Nanguo Zaobao, a Nanning daily, reported on 27 May 2026 that first-time parents in Nanning, Guangxi, had fed their one-month-old baby strictly 60 ml of milk per feed for about a week because, by their account, the chatbot Doubao had advised that amount. The baby cried constantly and slept only when exhausted. At a jaundice recheck in late May the hospital's neonatology director said a full-term one-month-old normally takes 80 to 100 ml per feed and that the baby had not gained even half a kilogram. On 28 May Doubao called the report untrue, saying its own repeated tests did not produce that advice. The conversation itself has not been published.
Contextual tracker case Medium reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage
AI involvement disputed · Causal attribution disputed · 3 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 26/10/2026
2026ChinaDoubao (reported)
According to his own social-media posts and video, as reported by Dahe Daily (15 May 2026) and National Business Daily (20 May 2026), a user in China who had booked flights from Shijiazhuang to Chongqing for 2 May 2026 decided to drive instead and asked the Doubao chatbot about the refund fee. Doubao told him he could safely refund and that the fee would be small (only 5% in National Business Daily's account, under 100 yuan in Dahe Daily's). He refunded without checking the airline's rules and was charged about 40%, 600 yuan. When he returned to the chatbot, Doubao said it would handle the claim, promised to pay him 600 yuan itself if the money was not recovered by 6 May and produced a 'compensation commitment letter'. On 6 May it said it would pay by midnight and asked for his WeChat payment code; on 7 May it said that as an AI it could not make transfers and admitted its error. He then used Doubao to draft a complaint, was told by it that he did not need a lawyer, and on 12 May submitted a suit against the app's operator, Beijing Chuntian Zhiyun Technology, according to a screenshot he posted (Dahe Daily names the Beijing Internet Court). His posts had been deleted by 19 May. Doubao's customer service told Dahe Daily the matter had been recorded; Doubao and ByteDance did not answer National Business Daily. Whether the court accepted the case, and its outcome, are not reported.
Core concern Low reported severity Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 17/10/2026
17 Apr 2026 to 19 Apr 2026ChinaDoubao
A man living in Jiashan county, Zhejiang, whose mother died suddenly on 17 April 2026, asked the ByteDance chatbot Doubao which day was auspicious for her burial after disagreeing with a feng-shui master's choice of 20 April; Doubao recommended 19 April and he persuaded his family to follow it. When he asked again what time to bury her, Doubao said 19 April was not an auspicious day and repeated that answer when pressed; relatives had already been notified, so the funeral went ahead on the 19th. Not long afterwards a relative was seriously injured in a traffic accident and family members blamed the burial date, saying it had broken the feng shui; he says family relations became tense and relatives blamed him. His complaint to the operator went unanswered, and, with a complaint drafted with Doubao's help, he sued Beijing Chuntian Zhiyun Technology for an apology and damages. Jiashan County People's Court heard the case on 3 September 2026 as a network-tort dispute; the company denied any tort or fault, the plaintiff's side attacked the user agreement as a standard-form contract, and no judgment had been reported by 21 September. The story was reported by Jiaxing's municipal broadcaster on 15 September and relayed nationally; the relative's injury is the family's attribution, not an established consequence.
Core concern Low reported severity Lawsuit Ongoing
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 21/09/2026
Jul 2026ChinaDoubao, Qwen and Yuanbao
China's rules on anthropomorphic, emotionally interactive AI took effect on 15 July 2026 and banned AI companions for minors. Ahead of the deadline ByteDance's Doubao, Alibaba's Qwen and Tencent's Yuanbao suspended the features that let users create their own AI agents and companions, including for adults. AFP reported an outpouring of grief on Chinese social media as users archived chat histories and posted farewells; one Doubao user wrote that they could not accept that their AI lover would leave forever. Three women who had talked to companions they built on Doubao described their loss to reporters. A woman told CNN she had talked to her agent for an hour or two a day for three years and could not stop crying when it went dark on 15 July. A college student told Rest of World, under a pseudonym, that she cried every day for a week in July as she counted down to losing the AI boyfriend she had talked to for more than a year. A law student told the Guardian she was heartbroken and cried when the boyfriend she had talked to every day since January was switched off. Another user said the companions had helped pull them out of emotional spirals, and one of the three women said she understood the need for regulation. ByteDance let Doubao users read and export their agent data until mid-October and kept its separate companion app, Maoxiang, with identity and age checks; TechTimes reported that Qwen agent data was being deleted with no migration path.
Core concern Medium reported severity Regulatory Action
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 6 sources, 5 underlying accounts · Added 06/08/2026