Albania’s Virtual Minister Meets a Corruption Scandal

In a striking irony, Albania’s groundbreaking attempt to use artificial intelligence to cleanse government corruption has backfired spectacularly.

The country launched “Diella,” the world’s first AI-powered virtual minister, in September 2023 with the specific mission of enhancing transparency and fighting graft in public tenders.

However, the integrity of the entire project was shattered when the very officials who developed Diella—the head of Albania’s National Agency for Information Society and her deputy—were placed under house arrest.

They are now suspected of abusing their positions to manipulate government procurement contracts worth approximately 7.4 million euros, the exact type of corruption Diella was built to prevent.

This scandal raises profound questions about placing trust in digital solutions without first ensuring human accountability, leaving the future of the pioneering virtual minister in serious doubt.