Alibaba and Tencent temporarily disable their AI chatbots due to entrance exams in China

In China, during the annual national university entrance exam "gaokao", major technology companies, including Alibaba and Tencent, temporarily restricted the operation of their artificial intelligence chatbots. In particular, the applications Qwen, Yuanbao and Kimi do not work with image recognition to prevent students from cheating, writes Bloomberg.

These restrictions are in place for several days as exams are held across the country. When users ask, the chatbots say the features are temporarily unavailable "to ensure the fairness of the exams." Some services, such as ByteDance's Doubao, are also refusing to process photos that do not meet "established rules."

The Gaokao is one of the most important exams in China. Its results determine whether a student will be able to enter a good university. More than 13 million students take the exam every year. Because of this, many families spend a lot of money on preparation: they hire tutors, buy study materials, and some even try to cheat the system. To prevent this from happening, the exams are held under strict control: phones and other devices are prohibited, and participants are closely monitored.

The development of artificial intelligence brings new challenges to this process. Thanks to AI, students can get answers to complex questions just from a photo, which poses a threat to academic integrity. In response, China’s Ministry of Education recently issued new guidelines. For example, students should be taught to use AI from an early age, but they are prohibited from submitting AI-generated content as answers.

Tech companies have shown that they are ready to help the state in the fight for fair education. Although the restrictions are temporary and services will be restored after the exams, this situation shows how the rapid development of artificial intelligence is changing education and requiring new rules.