Last week, Albania announced that an AI-generated minister would take charge of a new public tenders portfolio.

"Diella" is touted as the world's first virtual minister, and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama promised the appointment would end rampant corruption in government contracts -- a major obstacle to the Balkan nation's accession to the European Union.

But serious technical, political and ethical questions have been raised about the virtual lawmaker.

In announcing Diella's appointment, Rama claimed that public tenders would now be "100 percent free of corruption".

"Diella never sleeps, she doesn't need to be paid, she has no personal interests, she has no cousins, because cousins are a big issue in Albania," according to the prime minister, whose country ranks 80th out of 180 in Transparency International's corruption index.

Albanian politicians are frequently implicated in corruption scandals linked to public funds.

The former mayor of the capital Tirana was detained while in office and remains in custody, suspected of corruption in connection with the awarding of government........

© International Business Times