Albania puts AI-created ‘minister’ in charge of public procurement

A digital assistant that helps people navigate government services online has become the first “virtually created” AI cabinet minister and put in charge of public procurement in an attempt to cut down on corruption, the Albanian prime minister has said.

Diella, which means Sun in Albanian, has been advising users on the state’s e-Albania portal since January, helping them through voice commands with the full range of bureaucratic tasks they need to perform in order to access about 95% of citizen services digitally.

“Diella, the first cabinet member who is not physically present, but has been virtually created by AI”, would help make Albania “a country where public tenders are 100% free of corruption”, Edi Rama said on Thursday.

Announcing the makeup of his fourth consecutive government at the ruling Socialist party conference in Tirana, Rama said Diella, who on the e-Albania portal is dressed in traditional Albanian costume, would become “the servant of public procurement”.

Responsibility for deciding the winners of public tenders would be removed from government ministries in a “step-by-step” process and handled by artificial intelligence to ensure “all public spending in the tender process is 100% clear”, he said.

Diella would examine every tender in which the government contracts private companies and objectively assess the merits of each, said Rama, who was re-elected in May and has previously said he sees AI as a potentially effective anti-corruption tool that would eliminate bribes, threats and conflicts of interest.

Public tenders have long been a source of corruption scandals in Albania, which experts say is a hub for international gangs seeking to launder money from trafficking drugs and weapons and where graft has extended into the upper reaches of government.

Albanian media praised the move as “a major transformation in the way the Albanian government conceives and exercises administrative power, introducing technology not only as a tool, but also as an active participant in governance”.

Not everyone was convinced, however. “In Albania, even Diella will be corrupted,” commented one Facebook user.