Last September, Albania made headlines around the world when it introduced the world’s first-ever “AI Minister.” Diella, which means “Sun” in Albanian, was a chatbot that had been promoted to ministerial status. Her remit, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced, was to ensure that “public tenders will be 100 percent free of corruption.”
“I do not have personal ambitions or interests. I only have data, a thirst for knowledge, and algorithms dedicated to serving citizens… free from prejudice, discrimination, clientelism, nepotism, or corruption,” the AI avatar, who dresses in traditional costume, told Parliament in her maiden speech.
At the time, there were doubts over whether Diella could offer any real solution to Albania’s long-standing corruption problem. It appears that some of the reservations may have been well-founded. Experts caution that Albania’s plan to use Diella as a buffer against corruption has flaws, given that information generated by AI is not inherently neutral, and that there has been little transparency so far on how the technology will be deployed.
These concerns have been further compounded by an explosive corruption case inside the very agency that created the virtual assistant. According to anti-corruption prosecutors, the leaders of the government agency that developed Diella, the National Agency for the Information Society (AKSHI), are suspected of rigging tenders in favor of a criminal group that profited from privileged access to the agency’s contracts. The special prosecutors accused the AKSHI officials (in a court order issued by a judge) of receiving kickbacks that included wine boxes filled with cash. The agency’s director and deputy director were charged in the same document with violating public tender rules and cooperating with a criminal organization.
Two owners of IT firms — one of whom was arrested last month in France, where he was found to also own a castle — have also been charged with organizing and collaborating in the scheme. The deputy director of Tirana’s police force, meanwhile, has been suspended from duty while under investigation for allegedly covering up or collaborating with the group’s illicit activities. In total, authorities ordered a seizure of assets — including real estate, vehicles, bank accounts, and cash — worth more than 40 million euros connected to the scheme.
Diella’s development was not one of the tenders involved in the alleged corruption scheme. Yet the allegation that graft ran to the top of the agency which created her has deepened doubts about the government’s plan to use the technology to tackle corruption more broadly.
Albania is under heavy pressure from the European Union to root out corruption in order to proceed with its years-long effort to join the bloc. According to the latest assessment from Brussels, which was released before the AKSHI scandal broke, perceptions of corruption in the public sector remain high.
Diella was first launched by AKSHI as a chatbot in January 2025 with the goal of helping citizens navigate the e-Albania government web portal, where they could access everything from birth certificates to pensions. Her rollout was part of the agency’s drive to digitize government services and help speed the country’s accession to the European Union, which Albania hopes to achieve by 2030.
Some tech-savvy Albanians have found the online portal helpful. But with 95% of the government’s services now exclusively online, some Albanians are struggling to use Diella’s assistance on their own. This has led to the emergence of a cottage industry of middlemen who have opened up offices around Tirana to help clients navigate the portal for a fee. Some see this service as merely an expensive formalization of the old system, in which one customarily slipped the equivalent of 2 USD to a local administrative clerk to expedite a family certificate or property deed.
Diella’s remit has been steadily growing since she was first unveiled to the public. From her beginnings as a chatbot for the government’s online portal, she was elevated to the role of cabinet minister in September 2025. Then, a month later, there was more news.
“Diella is pregnant and she’s expecting 83 kids,” the prime minister quipped at an international business conference in Berlin in October.
These digital “children,” he explained, would participate in parliamentary sessions, analyze EU legislation, and even alert absent politicians if a rival mentions their name, so they can prepare a response.
Diella, who floated like a modern-day genie on a screen above the audience, added her two cents: “Artificial Intelligence will help identify investment barriers before they become crises, detect corruption risks before they become scandals, and predict market opportunities before they are missed.”
As part of her ministerial duties, officials promise, Diella will soon be monitoring state purchases, evaluating bids, and overseeing billions of euros in government tenders. The exact details of her role in all this, however, have yet to be spelled out. Experts caution that Albania’s plan to use Diella as a defense against corruption has holes.
Who exactly will be held accountable for Diella’s decisions — something that the opposition has raised as part of a complaint it filed with the constitutional court — remains unclear. Responding to critics who argue that algorithms can be manipulated and controlled, Rama said Diella’s decision-making “will remain fully auditable.” But as the public waits for more details, Diella has already run into legal trouble herself.
In April, Anila Bisha, the actress on whom Diella’s likeness and voice are based, filed a lawsuit against the government, accusing it of misusing her image, which the government denies. Bisha said she gave permission for her image to be used as an AI-powered virtual assistant — but not as a politician in Rama’s government.
“The actress discovered the change when watching the news with her husband, and has since faced harassment in the street and online”, Bisha states.
Now she worries about what Diella might be assigned to do next. /OCCRP/
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