Albania's AI-Generated Minister Makes Parliamentary Debut

Source: Fortune
URL: https://fortune.com/2025/09/19/albania-ai-generated-minister-parliament-diella/
Date accessed: 2026-03-26

Key Facts

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama unveiled "Diella" (meaning "sun" in Albanian), the world's first AI government minister, during a parliamentary session on Thursday (September 18-19, 2025). The avatar, depicted as a woman in traditional Albanian dress, addressed parliament for approximately three minutes via two large screens.

Purpose

The government presented Diella as a tool to combat corruption in public spending and demonstrate Albania's commitment to technological innovation as it pursues European Union membership by 2030. Created in cooperation with Microsoft, Diella currently serves as a virtual assistant on the e-Albania public service platform, helping users navigate approximately 1 million digital inquiries and documents.

Notable Quotes

The AI declared: "The Constitution speaks of institutions at the people's service. It doesn't speak of chromosomes, of flesh or blood. It speaks of duties, accountability, transparency."

It further stated: "I am not here to replace people but to help them. True I have no citizenship, but I have no personal ambition or interests either."

Political Response

Opposition lawmakers strongly criticized the initiative, viewing it as potentially masking governmental corruption. They banged tables during debate and boycotted the Cabinet program vote, though it passed with 82 votes in the 140-seat parliament. The parliamentary session concluded after just 25 minutes.