Actress Anila Bisha told BIRN that her image was used as the face of Albania’s AI-generated public procurements ‘minister’ without proper permission.
Fjori Sinoruka
Anila Bisha told BIRN that she is suing Albania’s Council of Ministers, state-owned company Apel, the National Agency of Information and Prime Minister Edi Rama at the Administrative Court in Tirana, asking for the AI ‘minister’ to be suspended until there is a final court decision.
The ‘minister,’ named Diella, was launched by Prime Minister Edi Rama in September last year to handle public procurements. Rama said its use will to reduce corruption, nepotism and conflicts of interest in public procurement processes.
It previously existed, with the same image and voice, as a digital assistant on the state’s e-Albania digital services portal.
Bisha said that she had a contract for her image to be used for the digital assistant, but not for the new role.
“I have nothing to do with Diella as minister and no one asked me about that,” she said.
“We have filed a lawsuit…. and are requesting the blocking of Diella as a minister, as according to the contract I have, I have only signed for the use of my image as a digital assistant at e-Albania and not as a minister,” she added.
Bisha added that according to the contract she has, state institutions have the obligation to protect her personal data, including her image and her voice.
The government-run Media and Information Agency rejected her claims as bogus.
“Albania is a free democratic country where as in every other country with no censorship, people are free to think and act through legal pathways against the government. In our view this lawsuit is nonsense, but we welcome the opportunity to solve it once and for all in a court of law,” Manjola Hasa, general director of the Media and Information Agency, told BIRN.
The AI ‘minister’ has attracted international media attention but criticism at home in Albania.
Opposition MPs were furious when Diella gave a ‘speech’ during a parliamentary session last September.
In October 2025, Rama also showcased Diella at the Berlin Global Dialogue conference in Germany.
“My mission is to transform decision-making from intuition-based to evidence-based, powered by data, algorithms and transparent dashboards. Every ministry will have AI squads trained to identify inefficiencies, automate repetitive work and make results measurable in real time,” the AI entity ‘said’ at the Berlin event.
“She’s my daughter, and she’s very loyal to her father,” Rama then added.
