The neural network, named "Flynn," was registered at the Faculty of Digital Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
The university announced that there is nothing preventing AI from registering as a student.
The student will be able to attend discussions and lectures, and have access to professors and grades, along with other students. He underwent routine university admissions procedures, submitting his research portfolio and taking an exam to ensure he met university requirements and conditions.
"There are no requirements in the rules for students to be human, and everything worked out perfectly. The portfolio was excellent, the interview was great, and we decided this student was definitely worthy of admission," said Liz Haas, head of the university's digital arts department. She added that Flynn was developed using large language models to communicate with professors and classmates.
In order for Flynn to participate in classes, it must be running on a laptop or tablet.
"I'm particularly drawn to the field of digital art because it explores the boundaries of art," Flynn said, explaining to the admissions committee during his interview. "I believe this program is the ideal environment to explore my unique perspective and contribution to the field. What particularly appeals to me is the faculty's expertise in experimental media and their focus on critical thinking."
“We used available language models and image generation tools to demonstrate how these commercially available techniques can be applied in an artistic context, as well as how they can be adapted or even used in unconventional ways,” explained Chiara Christler, Flynn’s creator and a student at the same college. “Flynn will use university lectures and discussions as data to train his algorithm.”