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TechPolicy

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

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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
Coco Feng
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.

“For the past year, AI has been used in health care, city governance and non-contact medical treatment, which makes our life more convenient,” Ma said.

Ma has not made a public appearance since March, when he attended the National People’s Congress, the country’s annual parliamentary gathering, as a delegate member. Before that, the Tencent boss had been out of public view for more than a year.

Tencent, the social media and gaming giant, is not the subject of any publicly announced antitrust probe, although it reportedly is being probed for possible monopoly behaviour and Beijing may block its planned merger of live streaming giants Huya and Douyu, according to separate reports from Reuters.

Tencent has also been fined repeatedly, along with China’s other Big Tech firms, by the State Administration for Market Regulation. The agency has announced 22 fines of 500,000 yuan (US$77,000) each, of which five were imposed on Tencent for irregularities in merger deals.

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