China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a notice on 6 November that tightens oversight of devices containing AI agents. 36Kr and chinaaet.cn reported the news. Chinaaet.cn published a Securities Times report, and 36Kr links to the ministry’s original notice.

The notice defines an agent as an intelligent system capable of autonomous perception, memory, decision-making, interaction and execution. Chinaaet.cn reported that the notice sets out four tasks. They cover adapting agents to devices, the network access licensing procedure, updates to devices already in use and distribution in app stores.

Testing, identity codes and advance assessment of updates

A device is tested before it receives a network access licence. If a phone, tablet or wearable has a preinstalled agent, the test must also check the agent’s compatibility against the relevant standards. In addition, the device undergoes a fraud risk assessment and an advance assessment of how well it can counter fraud.

An agent used on a device must have a unique identity code. The notice says the code is assigned on the basis of the national standard series on agent interconnection. Manufacturers must ensure that a device stays the same before and after it is licensed. They must report significant changes to the ministry and have the device retested.

Manufacturers may update agents on devices already in use, for example through an over-the-air (OTA) software update. In that case, the manufacturer must submit a plan to the ministry covering, among other things, the timing and scope of the update, user groups, security measures and fraud prevention. After the update, the manufacturer submits a report. The service may be offered to users only after experts convened by the ministry have assessed it and comments have been sought.

Agent developers must state on the product’s settings page which device models and operating systems the agent has been adapted for. App stores must not offer an agent for incompatible devices. If an agent’s compatibility has not been checked, the store must, for example, demand fixes within a deadline or remove the agent. App stores must guide app developers to declare by electronic signature whether an agent may use their app. Without this declaration, an agent must not forcibly use the app.

Agent identity registry unveiled in Wuzhen

An identity registration and resolution platform for agents was unveiled on 4 November at the World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit. Pandaily reported this, citing IT Home and China Daily’s Chinese-language website. Pandaily said the platform is still being built jointly by national-level bodies. It is intended to assign identity codes, resolve identities across platforms and support trusted interoperability. The sources do not say whether the registry is linked to the identity codes the ministry requires.

At the same event, 20 organisations released a self-discipline convention for agent development. They include Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi and Baidu. The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) drew up the convention with the companies, and it contains eight commitments. Among other things, the signatories pledge to work together against the use of agents for algorithmic exploitation and fraud.