Tencent boss Pony Ma promotes ‘tech for good’ at Shanghai AI conference as China Big Tech incurs Beijing’s wrath

  • Ma spoke about his company’s collaboration with the National Astronomical Observatory to search for new stars, and he repeated the slogan ‘tech for good’
  • Ma’s appearance at the AI event, even if only via audio, could be a signal that he is in Beijing’s good graces

Tencent founder Pony Ma Huateng seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2018 in Shanghai in this file photo taken September 17, 2018. Photo: AFP
Pony Ma Huateng, the founder and CEO of Tencent Holdings, China’s most valuable internet conglomerate, said technology can be used for good in an appearance at an artificial intelligence conference (AI) in Shanghai on Thursday, avoiding any mention of Beijing’s recent crackdown on Big Tech.

In a speech delivered remotely by audio, delegates at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Thursday heard Ma talk about the collaboration between his company and the National Astronomical Observatory to search for new stars, and he repeated his company’s slogan of “tech for good”, adopted in 2019 for its 21st anniversary.

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