China seems to have reached a unique milestone in allowing a robot powered by artificial intelligence into a PhD program. The Shanghai Theatre Academy has admitted a robot named Xueba 01 into the four-year degree path toward a doctoral degree. This is the first time a humanoid robot has documented doctoral student status.
Xueba 01’s creators, the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and DroidUp Robotics, built it as a humanoid robot supporting high interactivity and advanced learning. The team designed the robot with silicone skin, giving it a human-like form and expressive facial movements.
Xueba 01 is currently 1.75 meters tall and 30 kilograms and has previously successfully completed some athletic challenges, earning third place in the world’s first humanoid half-marathon.
The AI robot’s doctorate will be in Drama and Film, with a focus on traditional Chinese opera.
The academy provided the robot with a virtual student identification card to complete its sense of belonging. In another display of Saturnian humor, the academy also assigned an actual person, a Shanghai-based artist named Professor Yang Qingqing, as the official mentor of Xueba 01 as a new student.
There are academic subjects and opportunities in the four-year PhD program for subjects like stage performance, scriptwriting, and set design while students also encounter technical areas in motion control and AI-powered content output.
Starting September 14, Xueba 01 will be officially enrolled at STA, attending classes, rehearsing with other PhD students and working on it’s dissertation.
The announcement sparked a wave of reaction online. Many expressed skepticism they could help students understand or make art.
One user said, “Now robots are taking students’ place.” Another said, “Art needs a lived experience. A robot can never share how human beings are moved, these algorithmically-driven creations.”
Some even questioned the use of resources, saying, “Some arts PhD students in China are still provided with less than 3,000 yuan in monthly resources. This robot is using resources of the students it replaces.”
This development started a debate on artificial intelligence in higher education and the arts. While supporters will say this a key technological breakthrough, criticism of the robot will be that it will reduce opportunities for human students and “the human experience” outcome of the creative processes.
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