Photo Credit: University of Tokyo

Since 2013, Torobo, a robotic arm designed to test the limits of artificial intelligence, has had one aspiration — to be admitted to the University of Tokyo, one of Asia’s top-ranked educational institutions. However, despite having an extensive database of textbooks and other teaching materials to draw upon, Torobo (short for Todai Robot) has repeatedly failed to obtain the university’s required minimum 80% score in the National Center Test, a standardized entrance examination adopted by Japanese universities. This year was no exception.