Jun 10, 2025 12:30:00

AI services shut down across China during university entrance exam period

A survey conducted by a British think tank in February 2025 reported that more than nine out of ten British undergraduates use AI in some form, and there are

concerns that cheating and other fraudulent activities using AI are becoming widespread, so issues in the educational environment accompanying the development of AI are attracting attention. Meanwhile, it has been reported that China has simultaneously suspended the services of multiple chat AIs during the nationwide university entrance examination period to prevent students from cheating using AI.

Alibaba, Tencent Freeze AI Tools During High-Stakes China Exam - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-09/alibaba-tencent-freeze-ai-tools-during-high-stakes-china-exam

Chinese tech firms freeze AI tools in crackdown on exam cheats | China | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/09/chinese-tech-firms-freeze-ai-tools-exam-cheats-universities-gaokao

China shuts down AI tools during nationwide college exams | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/news/682737/china-shuts-down-ai-chatbots-exam-season

In China, the National High School Entrance Examination (Gaokao) is held every year on June 7th and 8th. This exam is known as 'the most difficult exam in the world' and is a life-changing test, so it has become so heated that it is likened to the imperial examination, and there are many cases of cheating every year.

A number of cheating gadgets discovered in Chinese exams are made public - GIGAZINE

Bloomberg reports that Chinese AI companies have suspended some of their services during the 2025 gaokao to prevent cheating using chatbots. AI chat apps such as Qwen , developed by Alibaba and which ranked third in the benchmark in 2024 behind Anthropic and OpenAI, and Doubao , by ByteDance, which also owns TikTok, have temporarily disabled image recognition for questions on exam questions. Tencent's Yuanbao and Kimi , by startup Moonshot AI, have also completely suspended their image recognition services in general during exam time.

In addition, DeepSeek , which was launched in January 2025 and is said to have ' significantly changed the industry's view of AI development ,' was found to have been informing users that their service was unavailable at certain times. When The Guardian, which reported on this matter, asked the chatbot 'why the service is unavailable,' it responded, 'to ensure the fairness of university entrance exams.'

The AI companies whose services have been suspended have not made any official announcements. The Guardian has reached out to each company for details, but has not yet received a response at the time of writing.

Chinese authorities have announced measures to prevent gaokao fraud, including stricter border controls, biometric authentication, increased screening of digital devices, and wireless signal blocking. Some cities have also postponed performances and other events or set up special priority lanes to help students get to exam centers on time. Annual shutdowns of AI chatbots are likely as part of such national policies.