Tencent’s Pony Ma flags new AI social feature for Yuanbao app

Pony Ma Huateng, founder and CEO of Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, has teased a new artificial intelligence-powered social feature in the company’s latest push to keep pace in China’s intensifying AI race.In an internal address to staff, Ma said Tencent was beta testing a new social tool inside its AI assistant app Yuanbao, and encouraged employees to try it out and help debug the feature, according to Tencent staff who attended the meeting.The feature, known in Chinese as Yuanbao Pai, integrates AI with online social groups, allowing users to interact and collaborate with friends – Tencent’s latest experiment as it expands the capabilities of its consumer-facing AI app.Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Tencent’s move comes as competition among China’s Big Tech groups and AI start-ups continues to heat up, with the Shenzhen-based firm still playing catch-up to front runners such as ByteDance and DeepSeek.That figure was nearly double the 81.56 million recorded by DeepSeek’s eponymous chatbot, which ranked as the market’s No 2 player over the same period.