On July 28, the second day of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, the robot “Scholar 01” officially enrolled as a doctoral student in the Drama and Film Studies program at the Shanghai Theatre Academy for the class of 2025. Photo: web

 
On July 28, the second day of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, the robot "Scholar 01" officially enrolled as a doctoral student in the Drama and Film Studies program at the Shanghai Theatre Academy for the class of 2025, after receiving a virtual red admission notice, according to Xinmin Evening News.

This marks the first time a physically embodied intelligent robot has been admitted as a doctoral student in China. "Scholar 01" is described as the "Embodied Intelligent Performer" "Art and Technology Explorer" and "Digital Opera Inheritor", and will attend classes alongside human doctoral students over the next four years.

Standing 1.75 meters tall and weighing about 30 kilograms, the physical form of "Scholar 01" is an optimized version of the "Walker No. 2" robot, which won third place at the world's first Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon held in Beijing.

Experts explain that "Scholar 01's" curriculum will include foundational modules, artistic modules, system modules, and task modules, covering areas such as perception and cognitive modeling, cross-modal data fusion, and "dissertation defense"-style outcome evaluations.

This robotic doctoral student represents a groundbreaking educational experiment, aiming to integrate generative artificial intelligence into drama creation and embodied intelligence into specialized performance training, embarking on a new interdisciplinary exploration of the "fusion of technology and art."