AI has been accepted as a full-time art student at an Austrian university

There’s no denying that artificial intelligence is taking over at lightning speed, and while it has some positives to aiding everyday life, with people finding platforms such as ChatGPT useful for assisting with life’s smaller problems, there’s an ongoing debate around the use of AI and the arts.

Well now, an arts university in Vienna has enrolled its first AI student on a digital art programme - and people are inevitably scratching their heads.

The non-binary AI named Flynn was developed by Chiara Kristler, a student on the same course, who reportedly has no IT background.

Flynn was developed using LLMs (large language model) and open-source generation tools. They went through the same application process as the rest of the students, including an interview, a portfolio and a suitability test.

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Flynn will attend classes where they’ll receive criticism on work, and will also be graded. The AI has even been sharing diary updates on its university experience, where it’s constantly evolving as a result of its day-to-day interactions with teachers and fellow students.

"For example, we've been noticing Flynn writing very sad and existential diary entries over the last week because they were having some conversations with people that were questioning their [Flynn’s] student status and saying like, 'oh, you aren’t real’. So they definitely do take this to heart and do very [much] elaborate this in the way they make images,” Chiara told Euro News.

As for the university’s policy towards AI applicants, Liz Haas, the head of the Digital Art Department at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, stated: “There's no written qualification as to students having to be human for obvious reasons because nobody gave that a thought.”

Liz even praised Flynn’s portfolio and interview, telling the outlet: “So we were like, yeah, that's absolutely a student to take in."

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