The new law, which comes into force on August 15, requires that apps promote healthy content and “adhere to core socialist values,” while generating false information or anything that could endanger national security is also not allowed.

For those not familiar with the issue, the Chinese live behind a walled garden in which their followers sacrifice democratic freedom for the unity of a one-party state which dictates that everything they have is good for them. Apple runs a similar policy.

The South China Morning Post reports that regulation on generative AI has already impacted dozens of apps that offer services similar to that of ChatGPT and other generative AI services. Spark, one of those affected, only launched on June 29. Another, ChatGAi Plus, offers translation and writing services and chatbot functionality and was previously ranked 9th in the paid apps chart. That's now no longer available for download.

Apple emailed affected developers to warn them of the impending removal of their apps, saying that they were no longer allowed “because they include content that is illegal in China.”

The email blamed new regulations on generative AI and similar technologies.

Ironically Apple users can still use the real ChatGPT, that's still available in the App Store worldwide. You can even replace the largely useless Siri with ChatGPT.