Tencent Tests Xiaowei AI in WeChat
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- Tencent Holdings started testing a new AI assistant called Xiaowei within its WeChat app in China as part of efforts to catch up with AI peers.
- The Xiaowei assistant is powered by Tencent's WeLM and DeepSeek models, pairing the company's in-house technology with an external model to compete in China's crowded AI market.
Why it matters: By embedding Xiaowei inside WeChat, Tencent leverages the app's massive user base as a distribution channel — a structural advantage that lets it deploy AI to scale faster than standalone rivals. The dual use of WeLM and DeepSeek shows Tencent hedging between proprietary and open-weight approaches to close its AI gap.
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