AI functions disabled during gaokao exam season

In a bid to maintain fairness during the highly competitive gaokao exams, the annual national undergraduate admission exam in mainland China, major Chinese tech companies have disabled artificial intelligence (AI) functions. Over 13.3m students are currently taking these crucial exams, which determine university placements. Notably, Doubao, owned by ByteDance, informed users that “during the college entrance examination, according to relevant requirements, the question answering service will be suspended.” Other AI tools, including DeepSeek and Yuanbao, have also restricted their services during exam hours. Additionally, AI monitoring tools are being employed to detect cheating behaviours, with strict consequences for any violations reported.