Ai-Da the robot sums up the flawed logic of Lords debate on AI

Experts say it is the roboticists we need to hear from - and the people and jobs AI is already affecting

When it announced that the world's first robot artist" would be giving evidence to a parliamentary committee, the House of Lords probably hoped to shake off its sleepy reputation.

Unfortunately, when the Ai-Da robot arrived at the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday, the opposite seemed to occur. Apparently overcome by the stuffy atmosphere, the machine, which resembles a sex doll strapped to a pair of egg whisks, shut down halfway through the evidence session. As its creator, Aidan Meller, scrabbled with power sockets to restart the device, he put a pair of sunglasses on the machine. When we reset her, she can sometimes pull quite interesting faces," he explained.