Robot to sit for China's national college entrance exam

A Chinese robot is set to compete with grade 12 students during the country's national college entrance examination next year and get a score qualifying it to enter first-class universities.
The robot being designed will appear in three exams - math, Chinese and a comprehensive test of liberal arts, which includes history, politics and geography, said Lin Hui, CEO of an artificial intelligence company in Chengdu.
The robot will have to finish the exams during designated periods like the other examinees. It will take its exams in a closed room with just proctors and a notary present.
The robot will be linked to a printer before every exam, and the electronic examination paper will be loaded to the robot's programme when the examination begins, Lin said.

It will be totally disconnected from the internet and can solve the problems with its artificial intelligence programme, 'China Daily' reported.
It is believed that Chinese and a comprehensive test of liberal arts, rather than maths, will pose challenges to the robot, since questions in maths are objective with specific answers, while in the other test subjects, there are some subjective questions, such as the reading comprehension and essay-writing.

According to Lin, the robot writing technique nowadays has been increasingly mature.
The robot can analyse the topic of the writing session and complete writing. The essay may turn out to be an emotionless piece, which slightly affects the grades, Lin said.

The key technology of the robot lies in understanding language and reasoning, said Fu Hongguang, who is in charge of the research and development of the artificial intelligence programme required in the math test.