When Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama recently announced the composition of his new cabinet, the most striking thing wasn't who he had appointed as finance or foreign minister. The biggest news was the appointment of an artificially intelligent boat as the new Minister of Public Procurement.
Diella will oversee and decide on all public tenders the government awards to private companies. As Rama stated, "She is the first member of the government without a physical presence; she has been created virtually by artificial intelligence, and she will help make Albania a country where public procurement is 100% corruption-free."
This move, both suggestive and provocative, reminds us that those who place the most hope in technology are often those who trust human nature the least. But what is important is that Diella's appointment demonstrates that the supposed remedies for the ills of democracy increasingly take the form of digital authoritarianism. As much as such actions may appeal to Silicon Valley oligarchs, democrats everywhere should be alarmed.
The conceptual basis for an AI-generated minister is the technophile's understanding of humanity's relationship to the future. "Techno-solutionists" approach political problems, which normally require considerable thought, as if they were engineering challenges that can be solved only by technical means. As we saw in the United States during Elon Musk's brief tenure at the helm of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), they offer us technology as a substitute for politics and political decision-making.
The consequence of AI-driven governance is that democracy becomes redundant. Digital technocracy occurs when technology developers claim the authority to make decisions about the rules we must abide by and, therefore, the conditions under which we will live. The separation of powers advocated by Locke, Montesquieu, and the American Founders becomes an obstacle to effective decision-making. Why should we care about these institutions when we can harness the power of digital tools and algorithms? Under digital technocracy, debate is a waste of time, regulation becomes a brake on progress, and popular sovereignty is merely the enshrinement of incompetence.
No one in their right mind can deny that technological innovation has solved many problems; that much is obvious. Now, the great promise of today's tech moguls is not that they will solve problems, but that they will dissolve them. They deny the very idea of a problematic, uncertain, and unpredictable future.
It is no coincidence that an open microphone recently picked up Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin talking about immortality. Putting an end to aging is saving ourselves from the future; it not only means we will be spared what is to come, but also that we will avoid the burden of having to choose.
If we were to eliminate the indeterminacy that defines us, we would become beings to whom nothing can really happen. We would live in an eternal present that would have no other meaning than to optimize our living conditions, without uncertainty or controversy, or the risks associated with decision-making. The result would be a humanity without humanity.
It is also no coincidence that Albania's experiment focuses on public works and corruption: these are the areas targeted by the European Union, of which the majority of Albanians want to be a part. Since the end of communist rule 35 years ago, Albania's desire to join the EU, at least on paper, has led it to adopt the technocratic premise articulated by German sociologist Max Weber: only an autonomous bureaucracy can be free from political distortions.
EU membership follows strict parameters, neutral conditions, and rigorous criteria against which progress is assessed. However, Albania, like all the other Balkan countries waiting in Europe's antechamber, has discovered that technocracy is often little more than a fig leaf to cover up the EU's political reluctance. Even if Albania were to meet all the requirements demanded by the European Commission's technocrats, new conditions could always be introduced, excuses offered, and the rules of the game changed.
By appointing an AI-generated public procurement minister, Rama is giving the EU a taste of its own medicine. It also sets the stage for a surreal and discouraging scenario: senior European officials attending summits to talk to a chatbot about Albania's membership bid. Diella will be a true reflection—merciless and inescapable—of how we ourselves are hollowing out democracy.
This article is co-authored by Fabrizio Tassinari, Founding Director of the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute.
Copyright Project Syndicate
