China's first agent policy is introduced.

According to a report by Zhidongxi on May 9th, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on the Standardized Application and Innovative Development of Intelligent Agents" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Opinions") last night.This is the first time that the three national ministries have formulated a systematic policy with "intelligent agents" as the core theme. Previously, no national ministry document had specifically focused on the definition, security, application, and ecosystem of intelligent agents for comprehensive regulation. ▲ Screenshot of the "Implementation Opinions" release interface. The "Implementation Opinions" clearly state that the development of intelligent agents should adhere to the basic principles of safety and controllability, standardized and orderly development, innovation-driven development, and application-led development, and proposes four measures: consolidating the foundation for development, safeguarding the bottom line of safety, strengthening application-led development, and building an innovative ecosystem. In terms of strengthening application-driven development, it proposes 19 typical application scenarios focusing on scientific research, industrial development, boosting consumption, people's well-being, and social governance. Regarding standardizing the application of intelligent agents, it proposes clarifying product guidelines, preventing security risks, improving the governance system, and strengthening industry self-regulation. According to the "Implementation Opinions," the management of intelligent agents will be more standardized in the future, including classification and grading, security fencing, digital identity, and strict registration—all are included. Preventing minors from becoming addicted to or emotionally dependent on these technologies is also addressed in the opinions. In August 2025, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the 'Artificial Intelligence+' Action," proposing a phased goal by 2027 to achieve widespread and deep integration of AI with key areas, with the application penetration rate of next-generation intelligent terminals and intelligent agents exceeding 70%. How will this goal be achieved? The "Implementation Opinions" are specific measures to implement these opinions. The full text of the "Implementation Opinions" is as follows: Intelligent agents are intelligent systems possessing autonomous perception, memory, decision-making, interaction, and execution capabilities, and are an important form of artificial intelligence products and services. With the rapid development of next-generation artificial intelligence technologies such as large-scale models, intelligent agents are accelerating their deep integration with cyberspace and the physical world, profoundly changing human production and lifestyles and social governance models. To implement the State Council's "Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the 'Artificial Intelligence+' Action" and promote the standardized application and innovative development of intelligent agents, these Implementation Opinions are formulated. Guided by the principles of promoting technological innovation, enhancing governance capabilities, building an industrial ecosystem, and improving people's well-being, this framework adheres to the principles of safety and controllability. It prioritizes the safety, reliability, and trustworthiness of intelligent agents as the bottom line for development, applying these principles throughout the entire process of intelligent agent technology research and development, application deployment, and promotion, effectively preventing systemic risks. It maintains a standardized and orderly approach, adapting to the evolution of intelligent agent technology, constructing a governance system that seamlessly integrates with existing policies and regulations, promotes industry self-regulation and autonomy, and clearly defines bottom lines and red lines, thus orderly advancing the application of intelligent agents. It insists on innovation-driven development, strengthening the linkage between theoretical, technological, and engineering innovation, systematically breaking through key intelligent agent technologies, improving the collaborative mechanism between government, industry, academia, and research, building an open and shared intelligent agent ecosystem, and enhancing the industry's innovation vitality. Adhering to application-driven development, focusing on practical needs such as scientific research, industrial development, boosting consumption, people's well-being, and social governance, leveraging the demonstration effect of typical application scenarios, proceeding step by step from easy to difficult, and promoting the verification of intelligent agent technology, product iteration, and application implementation. Strengthening the foundation for development, improving the standard system, and lowering the barriers to intelligent agent R&D, adaptation, and application will lay the foundation for enriching intelligent agent products and services. (I) Improving the technical foundation 1. Strengthening basic technology R&D. Continuously improving the performance of general basic models, supporting the development of specialized models for specific industry sectors, and forming a model product matrix adapted to different scenarios and devices. Enhancing the supply capacity of high-quality datasets for intelligent agent training and operation. Strengthen research on technologies such as intelligent agent task understanding, task planning, tool use, long-term memory, mutual recognition and interoperability, and group collaboration to improve the generalization ability of intelligent agents. 2. Improve the intelligent agent toolchain. Conduct research on the underlying framework of intelligent agents, accelerate the development of key components such as perception, memory, decision-making, interaction, and execution, and improve the toolchain for intelligent agent research and development, testing, deployment, and operation and maintenance. Develop security and governance tools such as adversarial sample detection and behavior anomaly detection to improve the ability to detect, intervene, block, and recover from non-compliant behaviors of intelligent agents. (II) Construct standard protocols 3. Establish an intelligent agent standard system. Formulate guiding documents for the standardization of intelligent agents, establish a standard framework for intelligent agents, and systematically deploy a standard system covering key technologies, important products, data exchange, application scenarios, quality evaluation, security assurance, and trusted authentication. Accelerate the development of basic standards for intelligent agents and their interfaces with software tools, application services, and hardware peripherals. Strengthen the promotion and application of key national and industry standards for intelligent agent interconnection, such as the Intelligent Agent Interconnection Protocol (AIP). Support the development of mandatory standards in fields such as healthcare, transportation, media, and public safety. Encourage enterprises to develop products and services in accordance with relevant standards to improve the standardization of intelligent agents. Actively participate in the development of international standards. 4. Develop and deploy the intelligent internet. Research and establish an intelligent internet architecture, explore the establishment of an intelligent agent registration platform, and provide services such as intelligent agent digital identity management, retrieval and discovery, and capability declaration. Support the query and management of information such as developers, deployment methods, interface protocols, and compliance authentication. Enhance the collaborative capabilities of multi-agent systems, and research fundamental technologies such as agent identity identification, trusted interconnection, compliant payment, security protection, and conflict resolution. Leverage the technological advantages of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) to improve the end-to-end communication capabilities of agents. Explore the establishment of an intelligent internet monitoring indicator system. Adhere to the principles of people-centeredness, intelligent benevolence, multi-party governance, and safety and stability, create a standardized development and innovation-encouraging institutional environment, and promote the healthy and orderly development of agents. (I) Clarify Product Standards 5. Improve policies, regulations, and ethical norms. Accelerate research on policies, regulations, and ethical norms related to intelligent agents, leveraging the content resources and review advantages of professional institutions to ensure that intelligent agent behavior complies with laws, regulations, and mainstream values. Prevent intelligent agents from using data advantages and personalized technologies to spread harmful values and engage in algorithmic exploitation, and guard against risks such as addiction and emotional dependence among minors and the elderly. Ensure proper alignment with systems such as artificial intelligence ethical review. 6. Clarify decision-making authority. Under the premise of complying with laws and regulations and respecting social morality and ethical norms, clarify the reasonable boundaries and required authority for various decision-making methods, such as decision-making limited to the user, decision-making requiring user authorization, and autonomous decision-making by the intelligent agent. Ensure that users have the right to know and the final decision-making right regarding the autonomous decision-making of intelligent agents, and that the actions performed by intelligent agents do not exceed the scope authorized by the user. 7. Strengthen behavior control. Develop technologies such as rule embedding and behavior fencing to ensure that the behavior of intelligent agents in public places, private places, and special places is legal and compliant. Explore the use of technologies such as blockchain to establish verifiable and traceable mechanisms for intelligent agent behavior in important application scenarios, preventing major risks caused by improper intelligent agent behavior. (II) Preventing Security Risks 8. Enhancing Intrinsic Security Capabilities. Research security technologies such as intelligent agent data security, personal information protection, password protection, attack detection, access control, and behavior control to enhance the security capabilities of intelligent agent systems and prevent security risks such as data poisoning, privacy leaks, algorithm tampering, system vulnerabilities, and operational instability. Research intelligent agent security detection technologies and explore the establishment of an intelligent agent security assessment system. 9. Strengthening Supply Chain Security. Formulate full-cycle security specifications for intelligent agent development, deployment, application, and maintenance, and strengthen security management in areas such as model access, application programming interface calls, and the use of extended tools. Explore and establish a security information sharing and early warning mechanism for the intelligent agent supply chain, promptly issue risk warnings, and enhance security capabilities. 10. Mitigating application-derived risks. Improve the normalized risk identification, early warning, and intervention mechanism for intelligent agents, strengthen human-machine collaborative review, interception, and other risk handling capabilities, and prevent systemic security risks. Strengthen the security management of intelligent agent applications to prevent intelligent agents from being used for automated attacks, privacy violations, the generation and dissemination of false information, online fraud, and other illegal and criminal activities. (III) Improving the Governance System 11. Constructing a classified and graded governance framework. Based on application scenarios and potential impacts, prudently and steadily carry out graded governance of intelligent agents. For sensitive areas and key industries, the Cyberspace Administration, in conjunction with relevant industry regulatory authorities, will determine open scenarios and implement management measures such as registration, testing, and recall of problematic products in accordance with relevant laws, regulations, regulatory requirements, and security protection standards. For some low-risk areas such as daily life and entertainment, and routine office work, the intelligent agent evaluation and testing tools will be improved, and efficient governance will be achieved through compliance self-testing, information reporting, distribution platform management, and industry self-regulation. 12. Improve the compliance service system. Strengthen the supply of professional services such as intelligent agent risk monitoring and early warning, testing and evaluation, consulting, and certification, and guide the industry to actively develop intelligent agent monitoring tools. Conduct third-party evaluation services for intelligent agent functions, performance, quality, and compliance, promote the mutual recognition of certification and testing results, and provide reference for users to select intelligent agents. Compile and publish a report on the maturity of intelligent agent technology and applications to provide reference for industrial research and development. (IV) Strengthening Industry Self-Regulation 13. Guiding the Industry to Strengthen Self-Regulation. Encourage industry organizations and major enterprises to jointly formulate industry self-regulatory rules, clarifying detailed regulations on intelligent agent functional compliance, algorithm governance, intellectual property protection, and fair competition. Guide intelligent agent development platforms, distribution platforms, and service providers to establish fair and reasonable platform rules, user service agreements, and privacy policies, clarifying the rights and responsibilities of both supply and demand sides, and ensuring the healthy development of the industry. Strengthen publicity and education on the risks of intelligent agent applications to enhance users' security awareness. 14. Exploring a Credit Evaluation Mechanism. Guide industry organizations to establish a credit evaluation mechanism for intelligent agent market entities with voluntary participation, conduct credit evaluations for behaviors such as technology abuse, misleading consumption, false advertising, and concealing defective information, and carry out credit punishment in accordance with laws and regulations. Guide intelligent agent developers, development platforms, distribution platforms, and service providers to participate in credit evaluation and jointly create a favorable development environment. Strengthen application-driven development. Actively and steadily promote the application of intelligent agents in typical scenarios, drive the optimization and upgrading of technology products, and explore the formation of replicable and scalable intelligent agent application models. (I) Scientific Research 15. Scientific Research Exploration. Develop intelligent agents for theoretical deduction and simulation, and explore potential technological paths. Strengthen the ability of intelligent agents to integrate information and construct knowledge systems, and enhance the research and discovery capabilities in natural sciences, philosophy, and social sciences. Promote the integration of intelligent agents with scientific instruments and experimental platforms to achieve intelligentization of the entire process, including scheme design, experimental operation, data processing, and result analysis. 16. R&D Support. Develop intelligent agents for software development, and improve the full-process development capabilities, including requirements analysis, architecture design, code generation, and testing. Promote the integration of intelligent agents with software such as Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) to provide functions such as design scheme generation, simulation verification, and parameter optimization. (II) Industrial Development 17. Intelligent Manufacturing. Develop intelligent agents for production management, dynamically optimize production scheduling, resource allocation, and process connection, promote the application of intelligent agents in the industrial internet field, and improve the level of refined management of enterprises. Enhance the capabilities of intelligent agents in process parameter optimization, processing accuracy detection, and product defect identification, and promote the integration of intelligent agents with CNC machine tools, industrial robots, and automated production lines to improve quality, efficiency, and cost reduction. 18. Energy Resources. Develop intelligent agents for sensing environmental elements such as atmosphere, water, soil, and noise to enhance early warning capabilities for risks such as natural disasters and environmental pollution. Strengthen the ability to manage land and space resources throughout their entire lifecycle based on intelligent agents. Achieve efficient exploration of energy, metal, and other mineral resources based on intelligent agents. Develop intelligent agents for power dispatching, electricity consumption monitoring, and power grid maintenance to improve the efficiency of power resource utilization. 19. Transportation. Develop intelligent agents for traffic safety supervision and emergency command and dispatch to enhance capabilities in identifying violations, providing early warnings of traffic infrastructure risks, monitoring key vehicles (ships), and responding quickly to accidents. Optimize the performance of traffic monitoring and dispatch intelligent agents and develop intelligent agents for the management of transportation vehicles to improve the efficiency of road networks, water networks, and airspace. 20. Agricultural Production. Develop intelligent agricultural service agents to provide services such as agricultural technology guidance, pest and disease diagnosis and control. Promote the application of intelligent agents in planting, breeding, and high-efficiency breeding to advance the intelligent transformation of agriculture. Promote the integration of intelligent agents with intelligent agricultural machinery, smart greenhouses, and agricultural service platforms to improve agricultural production efficiency. 21. Financial Services. Develop intelligent financial risk control agents to improve risk identification capabilities in areas such as credit approval, transaction monitoring, and account security. Improve the anomaly detection and compliance audit functions of intelligent agents to enhance capabilities such as credit default prediction, credit card fraud interception, and anti-money laundering monitoring. (III) Boosting Consumption 22. Terminal Applications. Promote the empowerment of intelligent agents for Internet applications and services to optimize the service experience of online shopping, travel navigation, utility payments, and daily office work. Promote the collaborative development of intelligent agents with terminal devices such as mobile phones, computers, automobiles, home appliances, wearables, and consumer robots to enhance their ability to complete tasks across applications and devices. 23. Culture and Tourism. Develop intelligent agents for content creation in literature, music, painting, audiovisual media, and performing arts to promote the dissemination and promotion of excellent culture. Develop intelligent agents for tourism services such as intelligent navigation, multilingual translation, and services suitable for the elderly and disabled to improve the level of tourism services. 24. Commercial Services. Enhance the customer service capabilities of intelligent agents to provide 24/7 consultation, reservation, and after-sales services. Develop embodied intelligent agents for guidance, cleaning, warehousing, and distribution to improve the operational efficiency of commercial venues such as catering, retail, accommodation, and logistics. Explore the provision of low-cost housekeeping, elderly care, childcare, and disability assistance services through embodied intelligent agents. (IV) People's Livelihood and Well-being 25. Education and Teaching. Explore intelligent agents for courseware generation, homework correction, and learning analysis to improve teachers' work efficiency. Develop personalized learning plans based on intelligent agents, and improve functions such as intelligent guidance, Q&A tutoring, and virtual teaching assistants. Support the development of intelligent agents for online education platforms to provide lifelong learning services. 26. Healthcare. Improve the performance of medical auxiliary intelligent agents such as medical image analysis, disease diagnosis reasoning, and customized treatment plan generation; explore intelligent agents for drug management, surgical scheduling, and medical record management to improve the efficiency of medical services. Steadily develop intelligent agents such as pre-diagnosis and report parsing to improve patient experience. 27. Human Resources. Explore the application of intelligent agents in areas such as employment promotion, technical and skilled personnel training and evaluation, and public services for labor relations to enhance employment service capabilities. Develop intelligent agents for social insurance, labor dispute arbitration, and wage arrears management to protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers. 28. Information Services. Explore the application of intelligent agents in network content construction and management, and encourage information publishing departments and content dissemination platforms to develop intelligent agents for user analysis, topic planning, collection and editing, distribution and recommendation, intelligent review, public opinion guidance, emotional guidance, and real-time translation to achieve efficient integration of multimodal and cross-domain information. (V) Social Governance 29. Government Services. Explore intelligent agents for assisting in approval processes to promote the intelligentization of government approval procedures. Develop intelligent agents for policy consultation to provide 24/7 online government consultation, process guidance, and other services. Explore proactively pushing out relevant policies, service reminders, and processing guides to accelerate the transformation from "people seeking services" to "services finding people." 30. Judicial Services. Explore intelligent agents to assist in the entire case-handling process, improving capabilities such as case material organization, case information entry, evidence review, and auxiliary legal document generation. Develop intelligent agents for legal publicity, legal consultation, and legal supervision to provide efficient and convenient online judicial services to the public. 31. Public Safety. Explore intelligent agents for monitoring and early warning, emergency response, rescue dispatch, and collaborative governance to improve capabilities in safety production supervision and disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief. Enhance the ability of intelligent agents to identify abnormal behavior, warn of potential threats, and dynamically control and handle them to maintain public safety. Promote the application of embodied intelligent agents in disaster relief, security patrols, and hazardous materials disposal. 32. Urban Governance. Explore the application of intelligent agents in urban planning, construction, and governance to support intelligent construction, housing management, and the safe operation of urban infrastructure, thereby enhancing the professionalism of urban governance and improving the quality of the urban living environment. 33. Bidding and Tendering. Explore intelligent agents for bidding and tendering to achieve intelligent management of the entire bidding and tendering process, ensuring standardization and efficiency throughout. Improve the intelligence level of bidding and tendering transactions, services, and supervision, achieving scientific and reasonable bidding, fair and impartial evaluation, and transparent and efficient supervision. Building an Innovation Ecosystem. Facilitate supply and demand channels, promote high-level interaction between the R&D side and the demand side, and form a market-driven, internally driven intelligent agent industrial ecosystem. (I) Promoting Industrial Cooperation 34. Cultivating Open Source Innovation Forces. Guide domestic AI open source communities to strengthen the layout of intelligent agents and carry out compatibility adaptation between intelligent agents and open source chips, open source operating systems, and open source large models. Guide enterprises, universities, and research institutions to actively participate in open source projects such as intelligent agent frameworks, interaction interfaces, and toolchains, promote the integrated development of technology systems, and accelerate the enhancement of international influence. 35. Building Industrial Collaboration Platforms. Leverage the role of industrial collaboration platforms such as intelligent agent-related ecological alliances and technology verification laboratories to coordinate upstream and downstream industries in the research and development of common intelligent agent technologies, standard setting, evaluation and certification, and to cultivate compound talents in intelligent agent technology and industrial applications. Guide enterprises in fields such as Internet applications and intelligent terminals to jointly build an ecosystem and explore the establishment of mutually beneficial cooperation models. (II) Strengthening Application Promotion 36. Building Application Promotion Channels. Promote the establishment of intelligent agent software stores and industry supply and demand information release platforms, guiding intelligent agent enterprises to actively release products and form a clustering effect. Conduct intelligent agent application supply and demand matching activities, attracting intelligent agent enterprises to customize and develop corresponding products through methods such as open bidding and open competition. Guide complete machine and software enterprises to develop products and services based on intelligent agents and cultivate the user market. 37. Promoting the Opening of Key Scenarios. Promote the opening of intelligent agent application scenarios in key areas, carry out intelligent agent application pilot projects in industrial clusters, key industries, and key areas, and create a number of leading demonstration projects. Develop market-oriented and professional intelligent agent technology transformation service institutions, explore intelligent agent application scenarios, and improve the efficiency of technology transfer. Promote the sharing and openness of industry data to support the training and deployment of intelligent agents in key scenarios. 38. Actively cultivate a global ecosystem. Leveraging international platforms such as the World Artificial Intelligence Conference and the World Internet Conference, exchange and showcase innovative achievements in intelligent agent technology. Promote the adaptation of terminal equipment and software companies to intelligent agents, guide relevant enterprises to ensure compliance overseas, and promote the adaptation of intelligent agents to local laws, regulations, and cultural customs. The Cyberspace Administration of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with relevant parties, will strengthen overall planning, enhance resource integration and synergy, improve supporting policies, form a working synergy, and promote the implementation of key tasks. Establish and improve an evaluation index system for intelligent agent development, and strengthen the monitoring, evaluation, rolling implementation, and dynamic adjustment of the standardized application and innovative development of intelligent agents.