The First AI Minister (And The Geopolitics of AI)

This isn’t about Diella alone — it’s the opening act of AI in global politics

Sep 15, 2025

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“AI politicians” is a concept/expression from my 2018 book “Geopolitics of AI” - at the time, the first book on geopolitics and AI in the world.

Last week, Albania, a country in the Balkans with a GDP of $27 billion, did something stunning. It appointed an AI minister called “Diella” (meaning “sun” in Albanian) to clean up society, officially a “Minister for Public Procurement.” Diella was unveiled by Prime Minister Edi Rama, with a mandate of ensuring that public contracts do not involve corruption.

While Albanian parliament still has to vote on Rama’s cabinet—including Diella—it is the first time a nation has deployed an AI system this way, equal to a bureaucrat or public official. Diella is quite different from the human ministers who oversee artificial intelligence, such as in the UAE. In the case of Albania, an AI system will now “manage” a specific part of society.

In 2018, when I published the book “Geopolitics of AI,” I dedicated an entire chapter to what I call “AI politicians,” arguing that nations were reaching a point where AI may be given a certain mandate in national politics. At times, some societies have come close. In 2018, a mayoral race for a district in Tokyo saw an AI system named “Michihito Matsuda” place third. And in 2024, the UK debated using chatbots to negotiate Brexit trade deals—building on a survey from 2020 where 1 in 5 Brits said they would trust AI to handle Brexit talks.

However, in the case of Diella, it is no longer a question of “what if” or “close call.”