The robotic artist known as Ai-Da was scheduled to display her artwork alongside the great pyramids of Egypt on Thursday, though the show was nearly called off after both the robot and her human sculptor, Aidan Meller, were detained by Egyptian authorities for a week and a half until they could confirm that the artist was actually a spy. The incident began when border guards objected over Ai-da's camera eyes, which it uses in its creative process, and its on-board modem. "I can ditch the modems, but I can't really gouge her eyes out," Meller told The Guardian. The robot artist, which was built in 2019, typically travels via specialized cargo case and was held at the border until clearing customs on Wednesday evening, hours before the exhibit was scheduled to begin. "The British ambassador has been working through the night to get Ai-Da released, but we're right up to the wire now," Meller said, just before Ai-Da was sprung from robo-jail.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. In late September, Egyptian authorities began a crackdown against the country's queer communities after fans of Mashrou' Leila, an outspoken Lebanese indie rock group with an openly gay band member, displayed a rainbow flag at the group's concert in Cairo. The government responded quickly in what some activists called the worst campaign against LGBTQIA Egyptians in decades. Security forces arrested more than 85 individuals on a range of charges, including "habitual debauchery." Officials convicted at least 16 and issued sentences ranging from six months to six years in prison (though a handful were later released).

Initial searches have revealed debris and personal belongings from the aircraft about 180 miles north of Alexandria. Further, the U.S. Navy's Sixth Fleet has contended that one of its patrolling aircrafts supporting the search had spotted more than 100 pieces of debris identified as having come from an aircraft. Now, the Egyptian authorities are bent on ensuing a much deeper search of the waterspace by employing deep sea search in order to retrieve the black box of the aircraft, which could provide clues as to what happened the night of the crash.