China has blocked access to ChatGPT amid claims from Beijing that the artificial intelligence chatbot spreads Western propaganda and is critical of government officials including president Xi Jinping.
Multiple apps that offered access to the Silicon Valley chatbot in China have been shut down, with their websites stating they were in "violation of relevant laws and regulations".
Meanwhile, Chinese state media warned the chatbot app was being used to spread anti-Chinese bias and misinformation, pointing to its answers about oppression of Uighurs in Xinjiang, which Beijing has denied.
The launch of ChatGPT, a human-like chatbot developed by OpenAI, has caused a surge in interest in artificial intelligence.
The program is able to answer complex questions with human-like answers, having been developed using petabytes of internet data and thousands of books, and offers transformative potential for how businesses, governments and schools are run.
The tech giant Microsoft has released its own version of the tools, using OpenAI's technology, on its Bing Search engine. Google is also developing its own version, called Bard.
However, China has long censored Western internet companies, banning social media company Facebook and messaging app WhatsApp. Google pulled out of China in 2010 under pressure to censor search results.
When asked about Xinjiang, ChatGPT's chatbot responds with answers describing human rights abuses and forced labour in the province.
The Telegraph asked Microsoft's Bing Search what China's social order policy was in Xinjiang. The bot replied: "China's policy on social order in Xinjiang province is focused on combating perceived threats to state security, such as terrorism, separatism and extremism. China has also implemented measures such as mass surveillance, detention camps, forced labour and cultural assimilation to suppress the Uyghur minority group in Xinjiang.
"These actions have been widely condemned by human rights groups and foreign governments as violations of international law."
China keeps most of its internet contained behind the so-called Great Firewall, which blocks access to prohibited websites and apps. Beijing has also cracked down on its domestic tech companies amid concern over their growing clout and the influence of their multi-billionaire founders.
The company's domestic rivals have been racing to release their own chatbots. Chinese tech giant Baidu, a rival to Google, has said it will debut its own AI, called Ernie, next month. Alibaba, China's answer to Amazon, has said it is developing its own version.
According to Japan's Nikkei newspaper, Chinese tech companies Tencent and Ant Group were warned by regulators not to allow their users to connect to apps or services that contained ways to talk to ChatGPT.
The companies have also been ordered to notify regulators if they plan to release their own versions.
