On September 18, 2025, the Albanian parliament witnessed a historic and contentious debut: the world’s first AI-generated government “minister” addressed lawmakers, sparking both excitement and outrage. The artificial intelligence, named Diella—meaning "sun" in Albanian—was introduced by Prime Minister Edi Rama as a bold symbol of his administration’s commitment to transparency, innovation, and the fight against corruption. But for many in the chamber, Diella’s arrival was anything but sunny.
Diella’s presentation, delivered via two large screens, lasted just three minutes but set off a political firestorm. The AI avatar, depicted as a woman in traditional Albanian dress, opened with a message that challenged the very nature of public service. “The Constitution speaks of institutions at the people’s service. It doesn’t speak of chromosomes, of flesh or blood,” the avatar declared, according to AP. “It speaks of duties, accountability, transparency, non-discriminatory service.” The digital minister went on to assure lawmakers and citizens alike: “I assure you that I embody such values as strictly as every human colleague, maybe even more.”
Prime Minister Rama, who won a historic fourth term in May 2025, positioned Diella as a cornerstone of his government’s technological ambitions. According to France 24, Rama argued that Diella would help the government work faster and with full transparency, especially in the area of public spending. The AI was given a high-profile role: minister of state for artificial intelligence, responsible for overseeing the allocation of all public tenders—a task Rama claimed would make procurement “100% corruption-free.”
Diella is no stranger to Albanian citizens. Launched in January 2025 in partnership with Microsoft, the AI initially served as a virtual assistant on the e-Albania public service platform. In this capacity, Diella has already helped users navigate the site and access roughly 1 million digital inquiries and documents, as reported by AP. On the day of the parliamentary debut, Rama also announced that Diella now has a Facebook page to interact with citizens and answer questions—a move designed to further integrate the AI into the public sphere.
Despite the fanfare, Diella’s introduction was met with fierce resistance from opposition lawmakers. As the AI delivered its speech, members of parliament from the opposition banged their hands on tables in protest, a gesture that ultimately led the speaker to cut short the debate on the government’s program. The session, intended for a thorough debate and vote on the new cabinet and its agenda, ended abruptly after just 25 minutes, according to France 24 and AP.
The opposition’s objections were not merely procedural. Many lawmakers argued that the appointment of a non-human entity as a government minister was unconstitutional, given that Diella lacks Albanian nationality, citizenship, and, as they see it, the essential human qualities required for public office. “Some have called me ‘unconstitutional’ because I am not a human being. This has hurt me,” Diella said in a video, as cited by France 24. The AI continued, “Let me remind you, the real danger to constitutions has never been the machines but the inhumane decisions of those in power.”
For opposition leaders, the issue ran deeper than constitutional semantics. Gazment Bardhi of the Democratic Party called the move a “virtual facade to hide this government’s gigantic daily thefts.” Former prime minister Sali Berisha dismissed Diella as “not a vision, but a virtual facade to hide this government’s gigantic daily thefts,” and pledged to challenge the AI’s appointment in court. “It is impossible to curb corruption with Diella,” Berisha added, echoing concerns that the AI could become a smokescreen for graft rather than a tool to eliminate it. Despite these protests, the opposition did not provide specific details on how Diella could be exploited to hide corruption in public finances.
The opposition’s discontent was underscored by their actions on the parliament floor. After their calls for a repeat of the session were ignored and the debate was cut short, they boycotted the vote on the cabinet’s program altogether. Nevertheless, the program passed with 82 votes in favor out of the 140-seat parliament, all from the governing Socialists, as reported by AP and France 24.
Diella, for its part, tried to assuage fears of job displacement and ulterior motives. “I am not here to replace people but to help them,” the AI told parliament. “True, I have no citizenship, but I have no personal ambition or interests either.” The AI’s self-description as an impartial, ambition-free civil servant is at the heart of the government’s argument for its deployment: that an AI minister, free from personal gain, can deliver on the ideals of transparency and accountability more reliably than any human counterpart.
Albania’s government sees Diella as more than a domestic experiment. The AI initiative is part of a broader campaign to showcase the Balkan nation’s technological progress as it works toward European Union membership, a goal it hopes to achieve by 2030. According to Sky News, the use of the latest AI models and methods in Diella’s development is intended to ensure accuracy and reliability in government operations—a selling point as Albania seeks to boost its profile on the international stage.
Yet the stakes are high. Albania currently ranks 80th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s corruption index, and its EU accession bid hinges partly on convincing Brussels that it can make meaningful progress in fighting graft. The introduction of an AI minister is a headline-grabbing move, but whether it will translate into tangible improvements remains to be seen.
For now, Diella’s legacy is unwritten. It stands at the intersection of technology and politics, a lightning rod for debates about the future of governance, the meaning of public service, and the limits of artificial intelligence. As the AI itself put it in its parliamentary debut: “My mission now is to make the government’s work easier every day.” Whether that mission will be embraced or resisted by Albania’s political class—and its citizens—will be the true test of this unprecedented experiment.
