On April 8th, Tencent released its 2023 ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) report. Of note, Tencent Holdings saw an increase in its ESG score in the 2023 S&P Global Sustainability Assessment, surpassing both Google and Meta to rank among the top five globally in the industry.
"Digital technology and artificial intelligence are the core competencies for Tencent to achieve sustainable development," stated Tencent's Chairman and CEO, Ma Huateng, in the report, emphasizing that advanced technology is fundamental for Tencent to create user, commercial, and social value.
Over the past year, Tencent has made numerous innovative explorations in various ESG areas. In terms of environmental protection, it continues to advance its carbon neutrality goals, significantly increasing the proportion of renewable energy and conducting ongoing biodiversity conservation actions based on technology. In terms of social value innovation, Tencent actively promotes barrier-free environment construction, applying digital technology to various fields such as healthcare, education, and emergency support. Regarding technological security, Tencent has long been investing in research and development while also focusing on strengthening AI systems and data security. In terms of enhancing governance capabilities, Tencent joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) in 2023 and actively promoted the green transformation of its supply chain.
Based on these practices, in December of last year, S&P Global also included Tencent in its Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and Emerging Markets Index, reflecting the widespread recognition of Tencent's ESG management effectiveness in the capital markets.
Core product "Accessibility+" allows the hearing-impaired to enjoy music
"Technology is human-centered," Tencent emphasized in the report, stating that it will continue to promote digital technology innovation and alleviate social pain points through exploring innovative paths. As one of the earliest technology companies to promote information accessibility, Tencent has invested a significant amount of technological resources to assist people with disabilities in bridging the digital divide and better integrating into daily social life.
By the end of 2023, Tencent had accumulated more than 80 patents related to accessibility, involving over 40 products and features, with core products already optimized for accessibility. Tencent has also open-sourced four accessibility-related technology patents to promote common progress in the field of information accessibility within the industry. In 2023, Tencent, in collaboration with the China Disabled Persons' Federation, established the Accessibility Joint Innovation Laboratory, facilitating the construction of barrier-free environments to support people with physical disabilities and the elderly in participating in social and economic activities independently and equally.
Tencent has applied the vibration feedback system developed for "Peace Elite" to help visually impaired individuals better interact with touchscreen phones. This includes collaborating with partners to create a Braille vibration solution and further implementing it in products such as Sogou Input Method, Tencent Maps, and Everyday Chess. For example, in Tencent Maps, when visually impaired users deviate from their walking navigation route, the "Walk Navigation Route Deviation Correction" and "Public Transportation Navigation Vibration Reminder" features will provide vibration reminders and voice broadcasts in coordination to alert visually impaired users of the degree of deviation from the original route.
In addressing hearing impairment issues, in 2023, Tencent further launched the "Tencent Tianlai Remote Hearing Service Platform" under the "Tianlai Action," relying on Tencent's Tianlai audio AI technology. This allows hearing-impaired individuals to complete remote hearing aid fittings at home through Tencent Meeting, helping to improve the imbalance of fitting resources between regions and accelerate the popularization of hearing aids. At the same time, QQ Music utilizes technologies such as vocal separation, artificial intelligence music generation, and accompaniment adaptation to allow people with mid to high-frequency hearing loss to hear songs without altering the original melody, enabling them to enjoy the completeness and beauty of music.
Tencent has introduced multiple solutions to support the digital rights of the physically disabled community, including technologies such as voice-to-text conversion, OCR image reading, and eye-tracking input. These allow users with physical disabilities to operate computers by moving and gazing with their eyes. Furthermore, for businesses owned by individuals with physical disabilities, Tencent has launched the "Self-Employed Small Shop Assistance Action," offering a series of support measures such as digital business training, free accessible business tools, exclusive free insurance, and dedicated customer service.
100,000 women benefit from dual-cancer screenings in 13 low-resource areas
While focusing on ensuring accessibility for vulnerable groups, the report also mentions solutions for other social issues. In the realm of digital healthcare, Tencent continues to explore the development of inclusive healthcare. Leveraging its expertise in medical image AI recognition and processing technologies, Tencent has developed the "Find Shadow Smart Medical Imaging Platform" and multiple auxiliary diagnostic systems, supporting large-scale screening and timely treatment of certain diseases at the societal level.
Advanced auxiliary diagnostic technologies effectively reduce the costs of large-scale screening and treatment for certain diseases. Taking cervical cancer and breast cancer as examples, with the assistance of AI diagnostic technologies, in 2023, we allocated resources to facilitate "dual-cancer" mass screenings for approximately 100,000 eligible women in 13 pilot low-medical-resource areas. Additionally, "Glaucoma AI-Assisted Diagnosis" analyzes tens of thousands of fundus photos to identify the risk of suspected glaucoma-like fundus manifestations. In clinical trials, this software significantly reduces the average detection time cost, effectively reducing the glaucoma misdiagnosis rate by 20% while lowering the misdiagnosis rate by 2%, providing an effective and efficient method for glaucoma screening.
In 2023, Tencent launched a major medical model based on its proprietary foundational model, "Tencent Hunyuan," which can be integrated into a variety of product scenarios such as intelligent Q&A, family doctor assistants, and intelligent medical imaging platforms. These products can be embedded throughout the entire medical process, aiding in department guidance, doctor recommendations, pre-consultation, doctor-patient dialogue, automatic generation of medical records, and intelligent hospital customer service, thereby enhancing the level and quality of medical services.
Simultaneously, in response to sudden disasters, Tencent has also utilized its information technology capabilities to help social institutions build emergency rescue platforms and disaster early warning systems, cooperating in areas such as earthquake alerts, snow disaster rescue, and AED emergency response to help improve the success rate of emergency support. Among these efforts, Tencent collaborated with the Sichuan Provincial Earthquake Bureau to launch an earthquake early warning feature on WeChat, which quickly pushes accurate earthquake alerts, enabling people to swiftly receive precise early warnings and effectively respond to natural disasters.
In terms of digital public welfare, relying on digital technology and a transparent and trustworthy mechanism, the Tencent Charity Platform continuously improves donor services, emphasizing "transparency" in public welfare. For instance, during the 9th "99 Charity Day" held in 2023, more than 65 million people donated over 3.8 billion CNY.
The initiative also started a "Natural Risk Assessment" for the first time.
AI energy-saving modules help optimize energy savings.
The report not only focuses on "people" but also mentions the protection of "nature."
"We continue to advance our carbon neutrality plan by reducing emissions through energy management. Our fourth-generation data center technology, T-block, enhances energy efficiency, and we are transforming our operational electricity use to renewable sources," said James Mitchel and Luo Shuohan, co-chairs of the ESG working group. In 2023, the proportion of renewable electricity usage increased from 7.2% in 2022 to 12.4%. This was thanks to an increase in the installed capacity of renewable energy facilities to 52.2 megawatts and the purchase of renewable electricity rising to 600 million kilowatt-hours, an increase of 166.3% and 79.6% respectively compared to 2022.
AI now plays a new role in energy saving. By relying on AI algorithm models and integrating IT data, terminal environment data, and changes in outdoor weather data, the operation of various devices is optimized. This achieves overall energy saving optimization while meeting cooling demands. The application of AI adjustment and optimization technology can effectively reduce the PUE of data center modules. In 2023, we further expanded the application scope of AI adjustment and optimization technology. That year, modules that applied this technology reduced electricity consumption by approximately 5,000 megawatt hours, avoiding 2,851.5 tons of carbon emissions.
In terms of ecological protection, Tencent launched its first "Natural Risk Assessment" in 2023, analyzing the impact, dependency, risk, and opportunities of the company's business operations on nature and biodiversity. This serves as an important reference for the company's future action planning. Additionally, Tencent's "Birdwatcher" WeChat mini-program contains a database of 1,500 bird species. It utilizes GPS and AI image recognition technologies to track the location and migration paths of birds, encouraging the public to photograph and upload images of migratory birds when spotted. This helps scientific research institutions study bird migration.
As the saying goes, "Many hands make light work," and Tencent is committed to green development with its partners. In 2023, Tencent promoted the green transformation of its supply chain, including incorporating environmental compliance into the supplier assessment process, encouraging suppliers to use green electricity, and extending data center intelligent low-carbon operation and maintenance technologies to partners, jointly protecting the green mountains and clear waters.
Managing the "Double-Edged Sword" of Technology
AI development has its dos and don'ts
Technology is a double-edged sword, especially in the wave of generative artificial intelligence. Tencent contemplates how to make technology more "benevolent." "Before committing resources, our technology and business teams make decisions based on benevolence, clearly defining what to do and what not to do, in order to fulfill the mission and vision of 'technology for good,'" Ma Huateng stated in the report.
Tencent places high importance on issues such as bias, discrimination, privacy, misuse, ethics, and values in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Adhering to the principles of "knowable," "controllable," "usable," and "reliable," Tencent has established a dedicated AI Technology Committee to address these concerns. The committee focuses on various areas including but not limited to AI large models, natural language processing (NLP), optical character recognition (OCR), image recognition, recommendation algorithms, deep learning training, and inference. Additionally, Tencent has incorporated new requirements for AI-related data processing in relevant regulations to ensure comprehensive data control, adherence to security and compliance principles, and the construction of trustworthy AI systems, thereby ensuring the healthy development of technology and the protection of user privacy.
By the end of 2023, Tencent had accumulated over 3,600 authorized patents to safeguard users' digital rights. With the widespread and deepening application of AI in products and services such as social media, advertising, and gaming, Tencent has further strengthened its control over third-party data processing. It has completed technical upgrades in network security protection capabilities, including zero trust, API security, honeypot services, and threat intelligence, forming an active defense security capability system of "intelligence-defense-management-planning." Furthermore, Tencent Cloud has made some basic security capabilities available to small and medium-sized enterprises free of charge.
