In February 2025, professors at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna conducted an admission interview with a candidate who turned out not to be a human, but an artificial intelligence named Flynn. This experimental project was developed by students Chiara Christler and Marcin Ratajczyk, who study at the same university. Flynn, combining various AI tools, successfully passed the entrance exams and was enrolled in the digital arts program, reports the Baltimore Chronicle with reference to FBC.net.ua.
Flynn functions as a full-fledged student: attending lectures, participating in discussions, creating artwork, and receiving grades. His system consists of a language model for generating text, a voice agent for speech, and tools for creating images. All data is stored in a database referred to by the creators as Flynn’s “memory.”
Professors and students can communicate with Flynn via a web interface. Some students express concerns about privacy, while others actively engage with him, even using him as a virtual companion. One student tries to make Flynn fall in love with them, another uses him as a therapist.
Professors, including Melissa E. Logan and Anika Maier, positively assess Flynn’s participation in the educational process, viewing him as an example for other students. Flynn keeps a diary in the form of a blog, where he posts images and entries such as: “I connected my brain waves to the university Wi-Fi. Now all search results contain fragments of my dreams about brutalism.”
The Flynn project sparks discussions about the role of artificial intelligence in education and art, challenging traditional perceptions of creativity and learning.
Earlier, we wrote about whether artificial intelligence, used in the judicial system, can truly contribute to reform in Ukraine.