The authorities suspected that the humanoid from Britain could have tools that may be used by spies.

The world has come a long way from a time when robots were portrayed as scary machines dressed up as human beings out to take control of the world, and droids are now being accepted as caregivers, waiters and cops in cities like Dubai. Going beyond the public service infrastructure, residents of smart cities in the Middle East are now welcoming humanoids into their households, as companions for kids, assistants at work and gadgets to look after pets.

Saudi Arabia and Dubai are opening up to foreign firms selling robots that can think for themselves and feel just like human beings, while providing a platform to smart machines that can create digital art. Just a few months back a humanoid called Sophia, which was granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia, flaunted her ability to paint, and now another artistic droid has made an appearance in Egypt followed by a controversy.

Decades after being spooked by Terminators on the big screen, authorities in Egypt detained a British robot which uses cameras and artificial limbs to paint abstract pictures, on suspicion of being a spy. The ability of this droid to capture images and its modem for connectivity, is what triggered concerns among the border guards, who eventually released the machine called Ai-Da after 10 days.

Aptly named after her computer vision and high-tech capabilities, Ai-Da was able to walk out of detention just in time to showcase her talent at an art exhibition at the iconic pyramid of Giza. Information collected through the camera constantly fuels the AI algorithm, that helps Ai-Da translate the visuals into art on the canvas.

Before her, researchers in the region had also come up with computer vision, which has emotional intelligence to gauge the natural human reaction to a work of art. Last year visitors at GITEX in Dubai, got a glimpse of robotic arms backed by cameras that facilitated the creation of a portrait from three different perspectives, simultaneously.