AI as virtual solution to counter corruption

Thievery behind closed doors is a recurring corruption in the political landscape that steals the budget supposedly allotted for food production, disaster management, and the healthcare system. Fed up with this blatant exploitation, Albania took good governance to another level—shifting the power away from the mortal and into the guidance of a virtual leader.

Meet Diella, meaning “sun” in Albanian, who is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) minister tasked with managing project spending and assessing the credibility of contractor bidders.

“Diella is the first cabinet member who isn’t physically present, but is virtually created by AI. She will help make Albania a country where public tenders are 100% free of corruption,” Prime Minister Edi Rama emphasized 

Maiden of bidding

This virtual maiden, dressed in traditional Albanian clothing, oversees public bidding of government projects, awarding commendable private companies to handle public constructions.

Only those contractors with integrity, transparency, and accountability will be given the job of building infrastructure catered to the citizens, such as schools, hospitals, highways, bridges, flood control projects, etc.

Diella will also conduct a thorough background check to ensure a proper reward system and fair distribution of projects.

Through her voice commands, she streamlines bureaucratic work, allowing citizens and business owners to quickly acquire state records and secure officially stamped documents electronically. 

Aside from these, scheming government officials will be less likely to bypass Diella, as she’s programmed to be impregnable against bribes, threats, or bootlicking.

Ceasing corruption

According to experts, Albania was a hub for scandals of corrupt construction bidding. This unceasing crime has imbalanced the distribution of government projects, resulting in ghost projects and substandard construction.

Moreover, corruption not only steals national budgets, it is a humanitarian crisis that underfunds resources needed for equitable education and healthcare. 

As per the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) analysis, drastic global cuts to funding for education could leave 6 million more children out of school and experience compromised learning.

Walden University even emphasized that underfunded schools cannot perform well due to substandard facilities, overcrowded classrooms, and inadequate learning materials, ultimately leading to poor student learning outcomes

Meanwhile, budget cuts in healthcare slit the very life support of citizens, pushing essential services further out of reach for the poor.

Cristy Donguines, president of the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center Employees Union–Association of Health Workers (AWH), highlighted that massive underfunding forces patients to endure the heaviest burden—suffering from worsening conditions, or in the gravest cases, paying with their lives.

Aside from these, Albania’s tarnished reputation complicated its accession to the European Union (EU), fending off the country’s gateway to economic growth, sustainable development, and amplified global influence.

With Diella taking a government seat, Rama hopes that her arrival will improve the country’s state in order to achieve the EU dream by 2030.

Doubts on Diella

Diella, for many, is a silver lining of hope in combating a cancerous human nature—corruption. 

However, not everyone is convinced.

Many still doubt if she would be a responsible leader and a watchful guard against thievery, exploitation, and extortion. Especially because the government did not disclose if there is a human overseer for Diella, many are skeptical of the risks of manipulating the artificial intelligence bot.

A Facebook user commented that “even Diella will be corrupted in Albania” because some people are capable of bypassing or hacking through a secured computer firewall.

Another said that “stealing will continue, and Diella will be blamed.” She would become the scapegoat when there’s no human willing to take the blame.

Soulless solution

As her name symbolizes, Diella is the sun that illuminates transparency and legitimacy in Albania. With the guidance of Diella, contractors of public projects would be chosen through meticulous criteria, ensuring that they would act with fair and just intent.

Diella may not have the soul of a mortal, but this absence is her greatest strength. Unlike human leaders bound by ambitions and greed, she cannot be seduced or pressured by power.

Soulless she may be, her arrival would help heal Albania from its decade of theft and deceit. She’s basically the living proof that the government body has room for the artificial and that national discourses can be resolved with virtual support.