In what is just your typical day in 2025 at this point, the world’s first government minister generated by artificial intelligence (AI) is ‘pregnant’.
Albania’s so-called state minister for AI, Diella, will soon ‘give birth’ to 83 children.
The e-mum-to-be Balkan’s news was revealed yesterday by the country’s prime minister, Edi Rama, at the Berlin Global Dialogue conference.
Rama said the minister’s offspring will be virtual assistants assigned to 83 MPs from the ruling Socialist Party, according to NDTV.
‘Each one will serve as an assistant for them, who will participate in parliamentary sessions and will keep a record of everything that happens and will suggest members of parliament,’ Rama said.
‘These children will have the knowledge of their mother.’
Rama explained that Diella’s ‘children’ will help MPs carry out day-to-day tasks until 2026.
‘For example, if you go for coffee and forget to come back to work, this child will say what was said when you were not in the hall and will say who you should counter-attack,’ he said.
‘If you invite me next time, you will have 83 more screens for the children of Diella.’
Who – or what – is Diella?
Diella was ‘born’ in January when it was launched as a virtual assistant on the government’s web portal, according to its official profile page.
The text-based chatbot answers questions and helps people and businesses obtain state documents on e-Albania.
Diella, which means ‘sun’ in Albanian, was developed by the National Agency for Information Society with Microsoft.
It’s a large language model, a type of neural network that learns skills by analysing massive amounts of text from across the internet.
‘Diella 2.0’ was launched a few months later, now with a voice function as well as an animated avatar wearing traditional Albanian dress.
Albanian officials have yet to reveal exactly what makes Diella tick, other than saying it uses the latest AI models and methods.
But the software got quite the promotion last month, when it was made a minister to oversee government contracts with private companies.
This is despite how Article 100 of Albania’s constitution says every member of the Council of Ministers must be a natural person.
Diella was selected for the post as it’s, well, slightly tricky to bribe or threaten an AI – maybe other than switching it off.
Its name was absent from the cabinet list approved by Albanian president Bajram Begaj on September 15, as Rama has the complete ‘responsibility’ of establishing the virtual minister, a decree said.
Addressing the Albanian parliament in a video, Diella’s avatar said: ‘I’m not here to replace people, but to help them.’
Opposition MPs weren’t sure what to make of the digital minister, with some banging their hands on the table as the footage played.
Experts said that Diella is just the latest example of how AI is reshaping modern life – and politicians are trying to catch up with it.
Lawmakers in Ohio earlier this week passed a ban on people marrying an AI algorithm, instead treating the systems as ‘nonsentient entities’.
Under the proposed bill, AI systems cannot own a home, manage a bank account or work at a company.
Supporters say it’s less about robot weddings, but more about stopping AI from having legal powers akin to a spouse, such as power of attorney.
In the UK, meanwhile, an MP developed an AI replica of himself in August. When Metro spoke with his digital alter-ego, it went about as well as you’d expect.
Diella will ‘test’ just how much people can trust a minister made of ones and zeroes, the Bloomsbury Intelligence and Security Institute said today.
The think-tank said it expects opposition MPs will challenge Diella’s legal status in the courts within the next few months.
If this experiment becomes successful, it is likely that other nations may adopt similar virtual or AI models with such executive roles,’ it added.
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