Approximately 13.4 million students will take the “gaokao” between June 7 and 10.

China's popular AI chatbots have temporarily disabled their image-recognition feature during a key college entrance exam in China, according to a Bloomberg News report.

Approximately 13.4 million students will take the prestigious “gaokao” between June 7 and 10. The high-stakes exam—covering Chinese, Math, and English—is among the world’s toughest and determines undergraduate admissions in China.

According to the report, apps, including Tencent's Yuanbao and Moonshot’s Kimi, have suspended photo-recognition services during exam hours.

When asked to explain, the chatbots responded, “To ensure the fairness of the college entrance examinations, this function cannot be used during the test period.”

Alibaba's (BABA) Qwen and ByteDance's Doubao still offered photo recognition as of Monday.

But when asked to answer questions about a photo of a test paper, Qwen responded that the service was temporarily frozen during exam hours. Doubao said the picture uploaded was “not in compliance with [the] rules.”

China doesn’t have a broad university application system like the U.S., where admissions consider years of academic records, tests, and personal essays.

The centralized gaokao is tightly regulated to prevent cheating and ensure fairness. 

Last month, the education ministry issued rules urging schools to nurture AI talent early but forbidding students from submitting AI-generated content in homework and exams.

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