China fines firms for fake ChatGPT and DeepSeek services amid tightening AI governance

China’s market regulator has penalised several companies for posing as DeepSeek and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to defraud users, in its latest crackdown on unfair competition in the fast-growing artificial intelligence sector.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China’s market watchdog, fined Shanghai Shangyun Internet Technology 62,692.70 yuan (US$9,034) for operating a fraudulent ChatGPT service on Tencent Holdings’ super app WeChat.

The service posed as the official Chinese version of the OpenAI chatbot and misled users into paying for AI dialogues, violating China’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law, according to an SAMR announcement on Friday.

“The company was fully aware of the industry status and influence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT,” SAMR said. “They deliberately created a false impression that they are providing the official service to mislead users into making purchases.”

The companies operating knock-off services of DeepSeek and ChatGPT violated China’s Anti-Unfair Competition Law, according to authorities. AFP

In another case, Hangzhou Boheng Culture Media was fined 30,000 yuan for setting up an unauthorised website offering “DeepSeek local deployment” and tricking users into paying for the knock-off service. The fake site used fonts, icons and page design nearly identical to the official DeepSeek platform.

South China Morning Post