Auguste Rodin spent the best part of four decades working on his epic sculpture The Gates of Hell.

The Mona Lisa, by contrast, took Leonardo da Vinci a mere 15 years or so, although it should be noted the Renaissance master never considered the painting finished.

So we can only imagine what those luminaries would think of an up-and-coming Oxford-based contemporary artist who can knock out complex works in under two hours.

Not least because she’s a robot.

Meet Ai-Da, the world’s first robot artist to stage an exhibition, and, according to her creator, every bit as good as many of the abstract human painters working today.

Named in honour of the pioneering female mathematician Ada Lovelace, the artificial intelligence (AI) machine can sketch a portrait by sight, compose a “hauntingly beautiful” conceptual painting rich with political meaning, and is becoming a dab hand sculpting, too.

The humanoid machine can walk, talk and hold a pencil or brush.

But it is Ai-Da’s ability to teach itself new and ever more sophisticated means of creative expression that has set the art world agog.