A new minister has just taken office in Albania, a sadly famous country for its systemic corruption problems. According to Reuters, this newcomer should be impossible to threaten, weld or blackmail, and for good reason: it is a virtual minister, and more specifically of a conversational agent doped at AI.
This entity, called Diella (“Sun” in the local language), was officially assigned to the post of Minister of State for artificial intelligence. Its main mission will be take charge of all decisions related to public tendersthese procedures by which the government invites companies to apply for contracts funded with taxpayer money.
The decision is anything but trivial. These calls for tenders involve considerable sums whose management is often left to the assessment of managers of the file; It is thereforeOne of the most widespread corruption channels in the world.
This is particularly true in Albania. Reuters Explained in particular that several major gangs use this channel to whiten money from the trafficking of weapons and drugs. The country has therefore regularly found itself in the viewfinder of institutions such as the European Commission or Transparency International For these reasons.
An objective and incorruptible minister
The instigators of the project hope that by entrusting the calls for tenders to an artificial intelligence, they will be able to rely on a fully objective, transparent and incorruptible referee To eliminate biases, conflicts of interest and questionable practices.
« Diella is the first member of the government not to be physically present, but to be virtually created by AI “Said Prime Minister Edi Rama during a speech quoted by Reuters. It will help make Albania ” a country where public procurement is completely free from corruption ».
When AI slips into politics
The idea of marrying politics and artificial intelligence is not completely new. We remember, for example, that in March 2024, the English government announced its intention to entrust certain chronophagous and redundant administrative tasks to IA agents, in particular to reduce the number of civil servants in the flesh. A few months later, an independent political party even presented a 100 % virtual candidate in the parliamentary elections.
More and more, more and more governments are now based on IA tools to automate certain administrative tasks, improve transparency, detect fraud and optimize public decision -making.
Democratic Revolution… or false good idea?
But until today, no one had yet dared to entrust such important responsibilities to an AI agent. There are many reasons for this reluctance: the question of responsibility in the event of an error, The problem of Sensitive data securitythe absence of a clear legal framework or the risk that the system may Make totally aberrant decisions. It is therefore not surprising that no government has dared to take the plunge so far.
Albania’s experience is therefore a very daring first first which could well launch a real paradigm change in the field of governance – for better and for worse.
If it is successful, it could truly Transforming the political landscape of Albaniaby helping the country to solve a major problem which not only cost citizens dearly, but also compromised its entry into the European Union. But in case of failure, it could also highlight the limits and risks of entrusting such responsibilities to an artificial intelligence.
It will be fascinating to follow the first steps of Diella, and to see if she will actually succeed in assuming her role as an incorruptible public agent to restore the country’s coat of arms.
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