TIRANA, Albania: Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said Thursday he had appointed the world’s first AI-generated government minister to oversee public tenders, promising its artificial intelligence would make it “corruption-free.”
Presenting his new cabinet at a meeting of his Socialist Party following a big May election victory, Rama introduced the new “member,” named “Diella” — “sun” in Albanian.
“Diella is the first (government) member who is not physically present, but virtually created by artificial intelligence,” Rama said.
Diella will be entrusted with all decisions on public tenders, making them “100-percent corruption-free and every public fund submitted to the tender procedure will be perfectly transparent,” he added.
Diella was launched in January as an AI-powered virtual assistant — resembling a woman dressed in traditional Albanian costume — to help people use the official e-Albania platform that provides documents and services.
So far, it has helped issue 36,600 digital documents and provided nearly 1,000 services through the platform, according to official figures.
Rama, who secured a fourth term in office in the elections, is due to present his new cabinet to lawmakers in the coming days.
The fight against corruption, particularly in the public administration, is a key criterion in Albania’s bid to join the European Union.
Rama aspires to lead the Balkan nation of 2.8 million people into the political bloc by 2030.
Albania appoints AI-generated minister to avoid corruption
https://arab.news/688uv
Albania appoints AI-generated minister to avoid corruption
- Edi Rama: ‘Diella is the first (government) member who is not physically present, but virtually created by AI’
- Rama: ‘Diella will be entrusted with all decisions on public tenders, making them ‘100-percent corruption-free’
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
