Diella has just been selected to head up public procurements in the country of Albania. And normally a bureaucratic position in a far away country wouldn't make headlines.
However, Diella is an AI bot.
I don't know what's more surprising about this story. That the tiny European country is using artificial intelligence to root out government corruption, or that Musk and DOGE didn't use Grok for that here in the United States.
Yes, we have robots taking government jobs. Which actually doesn't sound like the worst idea ever.
From The Straits Times:
A new minister in Albania charged to handle public procurement will be impervious to bribes, threats, or attempts to curry favour.
That is because Diella, as she is called, is an AI-generated bot.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, who is about to begin his fourth term, said on Sept 11 that Diella, which means 'sun' in Albanian, will manage and award all public tenders in which the government contracts private companies for various projects.
I mean ... I guess AI might be the most fair way to negotiate government contracts with private entities and avoid corruption.
It's definitely better than some corrupt "old boys' club" systems that exist in many governments.
The awarding of such contracts has long been a source of corruption scandals in Albania, a Balkan country that experts say is a hub for gangs seeking to launder their money from trafficking drugs and weapons across the world, and where graft has reached the corridors of power.
That image has complicated Albania's accession to the European Union, which Mr Rama wants to achieve by 2030 but which political analysts say is ambitious.
If it's a way to fight back against the control of gangsters and cartels it actually makes a lot of sense.
It's definitely not as crazy as it sounds on the surface.
Not everyone is convinced.
One Facebook user said, 'Even Diella will be corrupted in Albania.; Another said: 'Stealing will continue and Diella will be blamed.'
Given the way AI chatbots can be manipulated ... it might be that they've just pushed the problem down the road a couple of steps.
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