Albania Appoints World's First AI-Generated Minister, Sparking Controversy and Debate

Albania Appoints an AI-Generated Minister to Fight Corruption

Albania has appointed the world's first AI-generated minister, which has made its first speech to the country's parliament promising to help fight corruption. "Diella", which means sunshine in Albanian, has been made responsible for public procurement and will handle decisions on tenders to private companies. The AI has been given an avatar of a young woman dressed in traditional Albanian clothing. While it may sound like a joke, corruption has plagued Albania and stymied its hopes of joining the European Union. The AI-generated Diella is aimed at curbing crooked contracts where public money finds its way into the pockets of greedy politicians. Prime Minister Edi Rama, who made the appointment, says that Diella is "the servant of public procurement" and public tenders in Albania will be "100 percent incorruptible and where every public fund that goes through the tender procedure is 100 percent legible." "I am not here to replace human beings, but here to help them," Diella said in an address to parliament. "Indeed, I have no citizenship, but I have no ambitions or personal interests either. I only have data at my disposal. I am eager to learn new information and I have algorithms at my disposal to serve citizens with impartiality, transparency, and without ever tiring." However, the appointment of Diella has not gone down well with opposition politicians who threw bottles and anything else they could get their hands on as the Prime Minister and the rest of his human cabinet in a bid to stop Diella addressing parliament. "The goal is nothing more than to attract attention. It is impossible to curb corruption with Diella," says Sali Berisha from the opposition Democratic Party of Albania. "Who will control Diella? Diella is unconstitutional, and the Democratic Party will take the matter to the Constitutional Court." Albanian people are already familiar with Diella because the AI has been the virtual assistant on the e-Albania portal, a digital platform for citizen services. Diella was developed by Albania's National Agency for Information Society, using one of Microsoft's large-language models. Earlier this year, a judge was left unimpressed after a plaintiff attempted to use an AI-generated lawyer in the form of an avatar in a New York courtroom.

Leader of Albania Pelted With Trash for Appointing AI-Powered Minister to Cabinet

The world's first AI government official is going about as well as anyone could expect. Yesterday, the virtual assistant "Diella" made its "inaugural address" to the Albanian parliament. Maybe unsurprisingly, the software -- which had been appointed Minister for Public Procurements last week by prime minister Edi Rama -- was met with fury by certain officials. Chaotic video shared by Albanian media group Report TV shows lawmakers from the opposition party throwing bottles and desk clutter at the prime minister and his cabinet members, after previous attempts to block the address failed. "This marked the end of the first session of the new legislature," the video caption reads. In its "speech" -- if you can call it that -- Diella took aim at opponents who protested the appointment on constitutional grounds. "Some have called me 'unconstitutional' because I am not a human being," the program chimed. "Let me remind you, the real danger to constitutions has never been the machines but the inhumane decisions of those in power." The opposition party, the Democratic Party of Albania (PD), is a conservative organization which holds slightly less sway than the ruling party, the Socialist Party of Albania, a democratic socialist group. Both camps have grappled with widespread corruption dating back to the implementation of a market economy in the early 1990s. Initially, Rama seemed to float the idea of an AI minister as a tongue-in-cheek threat -- as if to draw attention to the urgent task of tackling political corruption, seen as key for Albania's bid to join the European Union. But in a dumbfounding move, the prime minister went ahead and appointed Diella to his cabinet after all, bestowing it with complete control over all public contracts. This, Rama asserts, will make government logistics "100 per cent corruption-free," adding that "every public fund submitted to the tender procedure will be perfectly transparent." Not everyone shares his optimism. "The goal is nothing more than to attract attention. It is impossible to curb corruption with Diella," PD official and former prime minister Sali Berisha said. The opposition leader, it should be noted, has been mired in a corruption scandal of his own. "Who will control Diella? Diella is unconstitutional, and the Democratic Party will take the matter to the Constitutional Court," Berisha continued. Diella originally began as a text-based virtual assistant to help citizens through the government's e-Albania portal, an electronic services platform. Its "AI" component was developed by Albania's National Agency for Information Society, or AKSHI, using a Microsoft language model. Until now, the program had only facilitated the flow of paperwork and information between government officials and citizens. Whether it's up to the task of autonomously wrangling public procurements for the country of 3.1 million remains to be seen.

Watch the world's first AI-powered minister delivering a speech

If we told you that Albania has just appointed its first AI minister, you'd probably assume that someone has been put in charge of overseeing policy related to artificial intelligence. But you'd be wrong. Because what it actually means is that the minister is an AI-powered avatar. The world's first AI-powered minister, called Diella (meaning "sunshine" in Albanian), is actually the Minister for Public Procurement. And yes, it all feels a bit odd. Appointed this month, Diella is supposed to be entirely corruption-free and fully transparent, with the AI element apparently helping to ensure that from hereon in, public tenders will be conducted efficiently and without political influence or misconduct. Diella also powers e-Albania, a platform offering digital access to government services. Strictly speaking, Diella is a government-appointed AI with ministerial functions, but lacks the formal legal and constitutional status of a human minister. Still, the excitement around the bizarre appointment hasn't stopped Albanian prime minister Edi Rama going so far as to suggest that one day even his role might be performed by AI. Diella was introduced to the people of Albania, population 2.7 million, in a video (top) released by the government, which, for now at least, remains mostly made up of humans. "Some have labelled me unconstitutional because I am not a human being," the unelected Diella says in the video, adding that "the real danger to constitutions has never been machines, but human decisions made by those in power." The virtual assistant insists it is "not here to replace human beings, but to help them," adding: "Indeed, I have no citizenship but I have no ambitions or personal interests either. I only have data at my disposal. I am eager to learn new information, and I have algorithms at my disposal, so that I can put all of this at the service of citizens, with impartiality, transparency, and without ever tiring." But Diella's arrival has not gone down well with opposition parties, with former prime minister and opposition leader Sali Berisha commenting that "the goal is nothing more than to attract attention." Berisha added: "It is impossible to curb corruption with Diella. Who will control Diella? Diella is unconstitutional, and the Democratic Party will take the matter to the Constitutional Court." Albania currently ranks 80th out of 180 countries in Transparency International's corruption index and needs to clean up its act if it's to have any chance of achieving its ambition of joining the European Union. By comparison, the U.S. ranks 27th and the U.K. 20th, while the bottom two countries are Somalia and South Sudan. Denmark and Finland come top. It's certainly going to be fascinating to see how Dellia performs and whether other governments follow suit and deploy their own AI-powered ministers. While AI can certainly be used in the machinery of government to speed up decision-making and provide services for citizens, actually fronting a government department with the technology is an extraordinary step. Some observers may believe that "it couldn't do any worse than the current lot" ... but maybe it could. Truth be told, a government full of AI-powered avatars seems a long way off.

AI-generated 'minister' makes debut in Albanian parliament

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player The world's first AI-generated government "minister" has been introduced to the Albanian parliament to a mixed reception. The so-called state minister for artificial intelligence, named Diella, appeared in front of parliament with a three-minute address delivered on two screens on Thursday, almost a week after Prime Minister Edi Rama revealed it would be part of his cabinet. Mr Rama said he was presenting Diella - the female form of the word for 'sun' in the Albanian language - as a symbol of his government's push for transparency and innovation, assigning it the task of addressing corruption concerns. The avatar, which was depicted as a woman wearing traditional Albanian dress, told MPs: "I am not here to replace people but to help them. "True, I have no citizenship, but I have no personal ambition or interests either. "I assure you that I embody such values as strictly as every human colleague, maybe even more," it added. Opposition lawmakers objected, arguing the move was unconstitutional as the bot is not human, does not hold Albanian nationality and could lead to more corruption. They banged their hands on their tables as the video played, and boycotted a vote on the programme, but it passed anyway with 82 votes in favour in the 140-seat parliament. Read more: MI6 uses dark web to recruit spies Meta announces new smart glasses - and we've tried them Justifying itself in its speech, the bot said: "The constitution speaks of institutions at the people's service. It doesn't speak of chromosomes, of flesh or blood. "It speaks of duties, accountability, transparency, non-discriminatory service." Socialist Mr Rama, who won a fourth term in office in May, argued that the bot would help the government work faster and with full transparency. Diella was developed earlier this year in partnership with Microsoft and uses the latest AI models and methods to ensure accuracy in carrying out its responsibilities, according to Albania's National Agency for Information Society. It is part of his larger plan to highlight the nation's technological innovations as the government works toward European Union membership, which it has pledged to secure within five years.

Experts question Albania's AI-generated minister - The Economic Times

Albania appointed "Diella," the world's first AI-generated minister, to oversee public tenders, aiming to curb corruption and boost EU accession prospects. Prime Minister Edi Rama calls her incorruptible, but experts warn flawed data, biases, and lack of accountability could worsen problems. Last week, Albania announced that an AI-generated minister would take charge of a new public tenders portfolio. "Diella" is touted as the world's first virtual minister, and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama promised the appointment would end rampant corruption in government contracts -- a major obstacle to the Balkan nation's accession to the European Union. But serious technical, political and ethical questions have been raised about the virtual lawmaker. Truly incorruptible? In announcing Diella's appointment, Rama claimed that public tenders would now be "100 percent free of corruption". "Diella never sleeps, she doesn't need to be paid, she has no personal interests, she has no cousins, because cousins are a big issue in Albania," according to the prime minister, whose country ranks 80th out of 180 in Transparency International's corruption index. Albanian politicians are frequently implicated in corruption scandals linked to public funds. The former mayor of the capital Tirana was detained while in office and remains in custody, suspected of corruption in connection with the awarding of government contracts. The opposition leader and former prime minister Sali Berisha is also suspected of awarding public contracts to his associates. Is Diella the solution? Not really, according to experts. "Like any AI system, she depends entirely on the quality and consistency of the data and the reliability of the models behind her," said Erjon Curraj, an expert in digital transformation and cybersecurity. The exact workings of Diella remain unknown, but it likely relies on Large Language Models (LLM) to respond to queries -- similar to the vast amounts of text that power generative chatbots such as ChatGPT or Gemini. But if input data is incomplete, biased, or outdated, the AI's decisions will reflect those flaws, and it "might misinterpret documents, wrongly flag a supplier, or miss signs of collusion", Curraj said. "LLMs reflect society; they have biases. There's no reason to believe it solves the problem of corruption," computer scientist and artificial intelligence specialist Jean-Gabriel Ganascia said. "Assuming a machine has no biases implies we must submit to the machine," Ganascia said. Who has control? The Albanian opposition has appealed to the Constitutional Court over concerns about who would be accountable for the AI's decisions. "Who will control Diella?" Berisha asked the parliament. Ganascia agrees that questions of accountability and control are key when it comes to AI. "If public decision-making is entrusted to a machine, it means there is no longer accountability; we are reduced to the state of slaves." "What worries me is the idea of a machine governing, offering the 'right' answer, and preventing any deliberation," the researcher, who is also a philosopher, said. "A politician takes responsibility, but here, the idea is that the machine is perfect, and we cannot go against its decisions anyway." Appearing to address these concerns, a decree published Thursday states that Rama "also holds responsibility for the creation and operation of the virtual Ministry of Artificial Intelligence Diella." Old corruption, new software The appointment grabbed headlines around the world, something the prime minister excels at whether by attending international meetings in sneakers, announcing a TikTok ban, creating a Bektashi State modelled on the Vatican, or opening migrant camps to house people intercepted at sea by the Italian government. But achieving his goals is a different issue. TikTok remains easily accessible in Albania, only a few dozen men have been transferred to the migrant camps and the initiative's legality is still being contested by Italian courts. Little public progress has been made either on the Bektashi State since its announcement a year ago. As for Diella, whose face is that of the well-known Albanian actress Anila Bisha, who signed a contract expiring in December for the use of her image, it is unclear whether her appointment will survive the Constitutional Court's scrutiny. It is also uncertain whether it will comply with the standards of the European Union, which Albania hopes to join within the next five years. "So far, there is no information about how Diella actually works," Albanian political scientist Lutfi Dervishi said. "If a corrupt system provides manipulated data, or filters are set up on what it must not see, Diella will merely legitimise old corruption with new software."

Who is Diella, world's first AI-generated minister? Here's what Albania's new minister said in first parliament speech and what does Diella mean

Who is Diella, world's first AI-generated minister? Albania has appointed Diella, an AI minister, to oversee public tenders. Diella addressed parliament, defended its role, and promised transparency in governance. Who is Diella, world's first AI-generated minister? Albania has made history by appointing Diella, an artificial intelligence program, as a government minister. Prime Minister Edi Rama introduced Diella to oversee public tenders and ensure transparency. The AI minister made its first speech in parliament, defending its constitutional role and addressing corruption concerns. Albania has become the first country in the world to appoint an artificial intelligence program as a government minister. Diella, which means "Sun" in Albanian, was introduced last week by Prime Minister Edi Rama and has now made its first speech in parliament. Who is Diella, world's first AI-generated minister? Diella delivered its first message to lawmakers in a video format, appearing as a woman in traditional Albanian dress. The AI minister said it was not a threat to the constitution but argued that the "real danger" came from the inhumane decisions made by people in positions of power. Diella explained that its purpose was not to replace human officials but to support them. The AI also responded to accusations of being unconstitutional. It highlighted that Albania's laws speak about duties, responsibilities, and transparency without discrimination. Also Read: D4vd Scandal Twist: Did singer write song for Celeste Rivas and what resurfaced viral social media posts reveal? All big surprising revelations explained Who is Diella, world's first AI-generated minister? Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that Diella would be tasked with overseeing all public tenders. Rama said the aim was to ensure every public fund submitted to tenders would be transparent and free of corruption. He explained that the use of AI would help eliminate human bias in decision-making and make the process "100 per cent corruption-free." Diella was first launched in January as a digital assistant on the e-Albania platform, which provides official documents and services to citizens. Its role was then expanded into a ministerial position. The government said the AI would now be responsible for handling one of the country's most sensitive areas: the awarding of contracts. Corruption has long been a challenge for Albania. According to Transparency International, the country ranks 80th out of 180 on the global corruption index. Several politicians and officials have faced allegations of graft. The mayor of Tirana, a former close ally of Rama, is currently in pretrial detention on charges linked to corruption in public contracts and alleged money laundering. Also Read: Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 5: What time will new episode premiere? Release date, time, where to watch, title, what to expect and Episode 4 recap The appointment of Diella has drawn sharp criticism from opposition leaders. Former prime minister and opposition leader Sali Berisha said the AI was "unconstitutional." He claimed the move was intended to attract international attention rather than solve corruption. Berisha questioned who would control Diella and insisted that the Democratic Party would take the matter to the Constitutional Court. The fight against corruption is central to Albania's efforts to join the European Union. Rama has set a target for Albania to become an EU member by 2030. The introduction of Diella is presented as a step toward proving transparency and reform. However, the debate over its constitutional validity and effectiveness in fighting corruption is likely to continue. Diella is Albania's AI-generated government minister, launched by Prime Minister Edi Rama to manage public tenders. It aims to ensure transparency and eliminate corruption in the tendering process. Opposition leaders argue Diella is unconstitutional and cannot replace human responsibility. They believe it is symbolic and will not effectively address corruption problems in the country.

The first AI government minister - The Korea Times

FLORENCE - When Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama recently announced his new cabinet, it was not his choice of finance minister or foreign minister that gained the most attention. The biggest news was Rama's appointment of an AI-powered bot as the new minister of public procurement. "Diella" will oversee and allocate all public tenders that the government assigns to private firms. "(It) is the first member of government who is not physically present, but virtually created by artificial intelligence," Rama declared. She will help make Albania "a country where public procurement is 100 percent corruption-free." At once evocative and provocative, the move reminds us that those who place the greatest hope in technology tend to be among those with the least confidence in human nature. But more to the point, the appointment of Diella is evidence that the supposed cure for whatever ails democracy is increasingly taking the form of digital authoritarianism. Such interventions might appeal to Silicon Valley oligarchs, but democrats everywhere should be alarmed. The conceptual basis for an AI minister lies in how technophiles imagine humanity's relationship with the future. "Techno-solutionists" treat political problems that normally require deliberation as if they were engineering challenges that could be resolved purely through technical means. As we saw in the United States during Elon Musk's brief stint at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), technology is offered as a substitute for politics and political decision-making. The implication of AI-administered governance is that democracy will become redundant. Digital technocracy consists of technology developers claiming the authority to decide on the rules we must abide by and thus the conditions under which we will live. The checks and balances defended by Locke, Montesquieu, and America's founders become obstacles to efficient decision-making. Why bother with such institutions when we can leverage the power of digital tools and algorithms? Under digital technocracy, debate is a waste of time, regulation is a brake on progress, and popular sovereignty is merely the consecration of incompetence. To be sure, no sane person can deny that technological innovation has solved many problems. Yet the great promise today's tech overlords are holding out is not that they will solve problems so much as dissolve them. They deny the very idea of a problematic, uncertain, unpredictable future. It is no coincidence that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were recently caught on a live microphone discussing immortality. To end aging is to save us from the future; it means not only avoiding what is yet to come, but escaping the burden of choice. Having eliminated the indeterminacy that defines us, we would become beings to whom nothing can really happen. We would inhabit an eternal present, with no source of meaning beyond optimizing our living conditions, untroubled by uncertainty, controversy, or the risks associated with decision-making. We would achieve a humanity without humanity. It also is no coincidence that Albania's experiment is directed at public works and corruption. These are the areas that attract scrutiny from the European Union, which is where most Albanians want to be. Since the end of communism 35 years ago, Albania's desire to join Europe, at least on paper, has led it to embrace the technocratic premise articulated by the German sociologist Max Weber: only an autonomous bureaucracy can be free from political distortions. Accession to the EU follows strict parameters, neutral conditions, and rigorous criteria against which progress is to be measured. Yet Albania, like all the other Balkan countries waiting in Europe's antechamber, has learned that technocracy is often little more than a fig leaf covering the EU's own political reluctance. Even if Albania were to comply with every last requirement dictated by European Commission technocrats, new conditions could be introduced, excuses offered, goalposts moved. By appointing an AI minister of procurement, Rama is giving Europe a taste of its own medicine. He also is setting the stage for a surreal and dispiriting scenario: senior European officials holding summits with a chatbot to discuss Albania's membership application. Diella will hold up a mirror - merciless and unavoidable - to the hollowing out of democracy that we are inflicting upon ourselves.

Albania's AI Minister Draws Concerns Over AI Within Governance

Albania has appointed what it calls the world's first AI-generated government minister, sparking debate over corruption, accountability, and the role of artificial intelligence in governance. Prime Minister Edi Rama announced last week that "Diella", an AI-generated figure, would oversee a new portfolio for public tenders. Rama said the move would make government contracts "100 percent free of corruption", and argued that Diella has "no personal interests". For context, the Balkan country ranks 80th out of 180 in Transparency International's corruption index. Several Albanian leaders, including former Tirana mayor Erion Veliaj and opposition leader Sali Berisha, have faced corruption allegations related to public funds and government contracts. AI specialists have warned that the appointment may not eliminate corruption. "Like any AI system, she depends entirely on the quality and consistency of the data and the reliability of the models behind her," said Erjon Curraj, an expert in digital transformation and cybersecurity to AFP. He noted that biased or incomplete data could lead to errors such as misinterpreting documents or missing signs of collusion. Jean-Gabriel Ganascia, a computer scientist and AI specialist, told AFP: "LLMs reflect society; they have biases. There's no reason to believe it solves the problem of corruption." "Assuming a machine has no biases implies we must submit to the machine," he added. The opposition has taken the matter to Albania's Constitutional Court, raising concerns about who would be responsible for the AI's decisions. "Who will control Diella?" Berisha asked in parliament. Ganascia also stressed the risk of removing accountability from politics. "If public decision-making is entrusted to a machine, it means there is no longer accountability; we are reduced to the state of slaves," he said. A government decree published last week stated that Rama "also holds responsibility for the creation and operation of the virtual Ministry of Artificial Intelligence Diella". Political analyst Lutfi Dervishi said there is little clarity on how Diella functions. "If a corrupt system provides manipulated data, or filters are set up on what it must not see, Diella will merely legitimise old corruption with new software," Dervishi added. Diella's appearance is modeled on Albanian actress Anila Bisha, who signed a contract allowing the use of her image until December. It is still unclear whether the Constitutional Court will allow this AI minister to continue and whether the system will meet the standards of the European Union, which Albania hopes to join within the next five years. Albania's experiment comes amid growing international adoption of AI in public administration, especially in procurement, where efficiency, transparency, and risk management are priorities. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), public procurement represents roughly 13% of GDP in member countries, and AI is being increasingly used to streamline workflows, detect fraud, and improve oversight. Countries like Ukraine have deployed AI to classify contracts and detect irregularities. This AI system, integrating government, civil society, and private stakeholders, analysed transactions worth €21 billion in 2023, and contributed to €250 million in savings since 2021. Chile has modernised public procurement by introducing AI-based bidding templates and analytics to detect irregularities, improve compliance, and promote ethical standards. Similarly, Brazil's Alice system automatically monitors government contracts, analysing nearly 191,000 acquisitions in 2023 and triggering audits worth over €4 billion. AI also supports predictive risk management, such as identifying potential corruption or fraud in tenders. Studies in Hungary and Spain have shown that AI can detect collusion or flag high-risk regions by scrutinising historical procurement data and political factors. Meanwhile in the US, AI chatbots assist officials with procurement queries, streamlining supplier communication and reducing errors. While AI offers efficiency, OECD research highlights significant risks: biased or incomplete data, lack of algorithmic transparency, regulatory gaps, limited digital skills among public servants, and vendor lock-in. Experts emphasise that AI is a tool, not a replacement for human accountability. Proper implementation requires robust data governance, clear legal frameworks, and ongoing evaluation to ensure fairness and reliability. OECD studies recommend collaboration between government, civil society, and private sectors to maximise benefits while reducing risks. The Diella experiment highlights the tension between innovation and accountability within a government setup. AI can increase efficiency, detect irregularities, and process large volumes of data faster than humans, but it cannot replace the judgment, oversight, and ethical responsibility of elected officials. If improperly implemented, AI systems risk reinforcing existing biases, enabling covert manipulation, or creating an illusion of fairness while perpetuating corruption. For countries like Albania, where public trust in governance is low, reliance on AI without clear transparency mechanisms could undermine democratic processes rather than strengthen them. Globally, lessons from Ukraine, Chile, Brazil, and other OECD countries show that AI works best when integrated with strong oversight, open data, and collaboration between government, civil society, and private stakeholders. The world will scrutinise Albania's approach not only for its technical effectiveness but also to see whether it establishes clear accountability, ensures fairness, and protects citizens' interests: all of which are fundamental requirements for any government using AI in decision-making. Albanian PM Rama is known for headline-grabbing initiatives, such as announcing a TikTok ban, proposing a Bektashi Muslim state modelled on the Vatican, and hosting migrant camps for people intercepted by Italy at sea. Many of these projects have seen limited progress or legal challenges, and Albania has stepped into uncharted political and technological territory with Diella. Whether the AI minister will tackle corruption or face the same hurdles as past reforms remains uncertain.