AI becomes first university student – ​​Vienna University of Applied Arts enrolls Flynn system

An Austrian university has become the first in the world to officially accept an artificial intelligence as a student. The system, called Flynn, has been accepted into the digital arts program at the Vienna University of Applied Arts. It will attend classes, be critiqued, and receive grades just like its human classmates.

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Flynn went through the standard application process, submitted a portfolio, interviewed, and took an aptitude test. “This department is particularly appealing to my artificial sensibility due to its focus on pushing the boundaries of digital art. I believe this program offers me the ideal environment to explore my unique perspective and contribute to the field. I am drawn to the faculty’s background in experimental media and the program’s focus on critical thinking,” Flynn told the admissions committee during his interview.

The university noted that there are no obstacles to enrolling a student, even if he is an AI: he presented a high-quality portfolio and successfully passed the interview. And the educational institution does not have a written rule that a student must be a human. Flynn was developed based on open large language models of AI to provide it with the ability to communicate with students and teachers who do not have experience in the IT field – in particular, Claude Sonnet and Stable Diffusion were used. The system started a diary and at some point began to leave sad and existential notes in it – the AI ​​was offended by the fact that people in communication called it “fake”.

The goal of the project is to study the mechanisms of human-AI collaboration in the arts. “The motivation for developing Flynn and working with AI agents in general is that we see agents as a new type of artistic medium that can overcome the myth of the uniqueness of artistic genius; it is a tool for recontextualizing artistic collaboration in a broad sense, because we do not see AI as a replacement for human intervention. It is more of a collaboration,” said Chiara Kristler, a Flynn developer and student at the same faculty.

Flynn will become a full-fledged student in the fall, when the new semester begins, but he began attending some classes in March – this will help the project creators understand in advance how he will fit into the team and what kind of relationships he will be able to establish with his classmates.