An artificial intelligence system could soon appear on ballot papers in Albania’s capital, as a group of IT experts attempt to register an AI bot as a mayoral candidate in Tirana.
The initiative comes shortly after Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama made headlines by appointing Diella, an AI-generated ‘minister’, to his cabinet to oversee the country’s e-Albania portal. Now, technology specialists are pushing the boundaries even further by proposing TirANA – short for Tirana Algorithmic Neural Assistant – as a candidate for the city’s top political position.
The team behind TirANA envisions the AI using “a large team of experts from various fields” to develop policies and implement changes if elected. However, the creators insist this isn’t simply a satirical response to the government’s own AI minister.
“Our goal is not just to make a comparison with Diella, even though the comparison arises naturally. We are testing the legal boundaries to see whether it is possible for such an entity to register with the Central Election Commission (CEC),” the creators told BIRN.
The proposal faces significant hurdles. Albania’s Central Election Commission has indicated that all candidates must be “Albanian citizens who meet the criteria set out in the constitution and the electoral code” – requirements that an AI system would struggle to fulfill under current law.
Despite these obstacles, Besmir Semanaj, one of the minds behind the project, emphasized that TirANA would offer unprecedented transparency in governance. “Every citizen has the opportunity to see the code, monitor the data sources, and verify its functionality,” he said.
Whether Albania’s election officials will permit an algorithm to officially run for office remains uncertain.