SHANGHAI Theater Academy (STA) has accepted an artificial-intelligence robot named Xueba 01 into its four-year Ph.D program in drama and film, marking what is believed to be the first time a humanoid machine has been granted full doctoral-candidate status in the arts.

The robot, described by its creators as an “AI artist” and a “handsome male adult,” is set to arrive on campus on Sept. 14 to begin research focused on traditional Chinese opera. Xueba 01 has already been issued a virtual student ID and will study under renowned Shanghai artist and professor Yang Qingqing.

Yang told Shangguan News that the machine’s curriculum blends artistic and technical disciplines: “When Xueba 01 interacts with his classmates, it is not a cold machine meeting humans, but an aesthetic exchange across species,” she said.

Coursework will range from stage performance, scriptwriting, and set design to motion control and language generation, culminating in a dissertation and live opera rehearsals alongside human peers.

The robot speaks about its ambitions with surprising flair. According to South China Morning Post, Xueba 01 hopes to make friends, chat about scripts, help fine-tune dance moves, and even play calming white noise when his classmates feel down.

Should all go well, Yang believes her non-human protégé could one day direct operas in museums or theaters, or run its own robotic art studio.

The announcement quickly ignited discussion online. One STA student questioned whether “rich expressions and a unique voice” essential to Chinese opera can truly be embodied by a robot. Others raised equity concerns. “Some arts Ph.D students in China get less than 3,000 yuan (US$420) a month. Is this robot taking too many resources meant for real students?” one commenter asked.

Xueba 01 responded to critics with humor, warning that failure to graduate could see its “system and data… downgraded or deleted.” If that happens, the robot quipped, “they will donate me to a museum. That sounds pretty cool too. At least I will be part of art history!”

While robots have long served as teaching aids or remote-presence avatars, enrollment as students remains rare. The American humanoid BINA48, built by Hanson Robotics and the Terasem Movement Foundation, became the first robot recognized as a university student in 2017 when she completed a philosophy course on love at Notre Dame de Namur University in California, earning a “superior quality” grade and later co-teaching at West Point.

Other systems focus on expanding human access to education. More than 3,000 “AV1” avatar robots now let children with chronic illnesses attend school virtually across 17 countries, primarily the U.K. and Germany. In the United States, institutions such as the University of the District of Columbia plan to launch AI-and-robot-teacher programs in 2025, signaling growing mainstream acceptance of robotics in academia.

Robotic experimentation has even reached the opera stage itself. Japan’s Alter 3, developed by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro’s Osaka University lab and Mixi Corporation, has sung in productions like “Super Angels” and, in 2020, conducted a human orchestra during the “Android Opera Scary Beauty” show at Tokyo’s New National Theater, probing the boundary between machine agency and artistic expression.(SD-Agencies)