Albania appoints ‘AI bot minister’ to tackle corruption

• Albania has included an Artificial Intelligence-powered “minister” named Diella that is in charge of running public funding projects and fighting corruption in public tenders.

• Diella means “Sun” in Albanian.

• Prime Minister Edi Rama said Diella is a member of the Cabinet who is not present physically but has been created virtually from AI.

• Diella would help ensure that public tenders will be 100 per cent free of corruption.

• Diella will be entrusted with all decisions on public tenders, making them 100 per cent corruption-free and every public fund submitted to the tender procedure will be perfectly transparent.

• The awarding of such contracts has long been a source of corruption scandals in Albania.

• That image has complicated Albania’s accession to the European Union.

• The fight against corruption, particularly in the public administration, is a key criterion in Albania’s bid to join the European Union.

• PM Rama aspires to lead the Balkan nation of 2.8 million people into the political bloc by 2030.

• Diella was launched in January as an AI-powered virtual assistant — resembling a woman dressed in traditional Albanian costume — to help people use the official e-Albania platform that provides documents and services.

• It had provided assistance through voice commands and issued documents with electronic stamps, reducing bureaucratic delays.