Albania's AI Minister Diella to 'Give Birth' to 83 Parliamentary Assistants

World's First AI Minister is "Pregnant" With 83 Offspring Government Announces

"Diella is pregnant and expecting 83 children, one for each member of our parliament and who will serve as assistants to them." Albania is breaking all kinds of ground these days. It became one of earliest nations to deploy an AI chatbot, Diella, as a public administration assistant, only to then become the first country with an AI government official when it elevated the chatbot to the role of minister of state for artificial intelligence. The Balkan country isn't slowing down either -- because now, Diella is pregnant. That's according to Prime Minister Edi Rama, who announced the happy news in front of the Berlin Global Dialogue over the weekend. As reported by ABC News Albania, Diella will soon be sharing her "children" with government officials loyal to Rama's party, the center-left Partia Socialiste. "Diella is pregnant and expecting 83 children, one for each member of our parliament and who will serve as assistants to them, who will participate in parliamentary sessions and take notes on everything that happens and who will inform and suggest to the members of parliament regarding their reactions," Rama announced. "These children will have their mother's knowledge regarding [European Union] legislation." Although the prime minister refers to these entities as "children," they sound more like something akin to a virtual assistant -- a government-sanctioned Siri. "If you go for coffee and forget to come back to work," Rama continues, "this child will say what was said when you were not in the room and if your name was mentioned, and if you have to counterattack someone who mentioned you for the wrong reasons." Rama is apparently unfazed by protests last month from the right wing opposition party, which hurled trash at his cabinet members during Diella's "inaugural address" to parliament. Overall, it's a bold escalation from the prime minister's stance just a few months ago, when Rama first came up with the idea of an AI minister to make a point about stamping out "nepotism" and "conflicts of interest" in the nation's infamously corrupt government.

Albania's AI minister is 'pregnant' with 83 assistants: prime minister

Diella, the country's first AI system that is now a minister in Edi Rama's cabinet, will have 83 "children," who will become parliamentary assistants. Albania's first non-human minister made up entirely by artificial intelligence (AI) is "pregnant" with 83 children that will become parliamentary assistants, according to the country's prime minister. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama toldthe Global Dialogue Forum in Berlin that the parliamentary assistants will participate in parliamentary sessions, keep notes on what goes on and then give advice to members on how they should react to specific pieces of legislation. "These children will have their mother's knowledge regarding EU legislation and everything else," Rama said. "This child will say what was said when [the member] is not in the hall and if [the member's] name was mentioned and [they] have to counterattack someone who mentioned you for the wrong reasons," he added. In January, Albania started using a digital AI assistant named Diella, meaning Sun in Albanian, to advise people how to navigate government services online. By September, Rama announced that Diella was joining his cabinet as the first digital minister. As part of Diella's mandate, the AI minister is entrusted with all decisions on public tenders, which will make them "100 per cent corruption-free," Rama said in September. Diella also addressed the summit in Berlin, saying that she hopes the world can learn that "artificial intelligence, when rooted in democratic values and cultural identity, can strengthen not weaken human leadership". She said that she and her children will not be replacing civil servants but that they will "amplify their capacity to serve" by helping them make decisions with data and to do repetitive tasks for them.

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Albania appointed an AI minister, Diella, to ensure its public procurement system is transparent and corruption-free. Prime Minister Edi Rama unveiled Diella, which translates to 'Sun', as an incorruptible administrator tasked with introducing into governance. At the , Rama announced that Diella is 'expectant' with 83 AI 'children', all of whom will serve as assistants to members of parliament. These assistants will capture parliamentary proceedings, summarize debates, and even provide counterarguments. Rama quipped, "If you take a coffee and don't return, your child will direct you on whom to counter-attack." The system should become operational by 2026. Initially, as a virtual helper on the e-Albania website, Diella assisted citizens in accessing government records. Today, she represents a new era, where AI beings undertake formal roles within governance arrangements.