Tsinghua CS student rejected for top scholarship after betting it all on AI and dismissing GPA
teortaxesTex · x · 2026-11-14
A Tsinghua CS undergrad, passed over for the department's Special Scholarship, published his defense Q&A: judges questioned his falling GPA and scattered research; he answered that AI progress comes from frontier practice, not classrooms, and that broad exploration lets "the optimization gradient flow back to yourself." He predicted his rejection: going all-in on research while dismissing GPA put off teaching-focused judges. His core claim: recursive self-improvement has effectively already happened, and by the time frontier techniques reach the classroom, the era of "humans training AI" will likely be over — urgency that outweighs every conventional evaluation standard.
Related event: Tsinghua Special Scholarship Reject Defends AI-First Research Over GPA(2 posts)→
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