Tencent calls to improve AI chatbots for vulnerable groups

Tencent Holdings is urging big tech firms to work together to enhance the way chatbots and digital assistants engage with senior citizens, children left behind, and other vulnerable populations that depend more and more on these tools for emotional support and health advice.

Specialized training data could greatly improve digital assistance for at-risk groups, according to Lu Shiyu, a senior researcher at Tencent Research Institute. “The next crucial step is working with major developers that serve many users,” Lu stated. “This would create the biggest positive impact.”

Specialized data sets under development

In order to train language models to better assist vulnerable users, Lu’s team at the Tencent Research Institute, the public research division of the Shenzhen-based internet giant, has been creating specialized data collections since 2024. Before systems are fine-tuned and deployed, these collections provide fundamental knowledge during the pre-training stage.

Lu’s team and academics from the University of Science and Technology Beijing tested some of the top models last year, and the results showed serious flaws. The study looked at the best Chinese and American systems, including Tencent‘s own Hunyuan, and discovered that all of them did poorly on subjects like sex education and other themes pertinent to China’s 69 million left-behind children, children from rural areas whose parents have moved to cities in search of employment.

Technology integration raises concerns

The program coincides with the swift assimilation of intelligent systems into the lives of Chinese youngsters. A November 2025 story in the Rest of the World claims that robot tutors, digital chatbots, and automated assignment grading systems are transforming childhood in China by providing both friendship and educational content.

In August, the Chinese government mandated technology integration throughout children’s education to enable personalized teaching. However, educators have expressed skepticism, warning that overreliance on automated systems could impair children’s independent thinking and communication skills.

Targeting elderly users

Tencent’s research team has also partnered with Chinese nonprofits serving vulnerable populations to develop an “elderly data set” compiled from thousands of question-and-answer samples contributed by older respondents.

Global developments are reflected in the work. Age-friendly design, cognitive accessibility, and privacy protections for vulnerable users were identified as major research themes in a January 2026 study published in JMIR that emphasized the growing significance of specialized data for aged populations.

According to the report, older persons frequently encounter major obstacles because of their low level of digital literacy and the complexity of contemporary gadgets.

Tencent hopes to ensure that technology benefits society’s most disadvantaged citizens, not only tech-savvy consumers, by creating these specialized collections and encouraging industry-wide cooperation.

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