AI candidate TirANA

The launch of TirANA (Tirana Algorithmic Neural Assistant) follows the Albanian government’s appointment in September of an AI chatbot as a government minister.

“Behind this project stands a large team of experts from different fields – technology, urban planning, environment, transport, economy, justice and public services – who believe that the city of Tirana needs a new approach, based on transparency, efficiency and accountability,” creators Denisa Kele, Tomi Kallanxhi and Besmir Semanaj said.

The trio, who are all IT experts, said next month’s election “will mark a historic point where Tirana will have the opportunity to elect an artificial intelligence candidate for the first time”.

Mr Semanaj told Balkan Insight that “testing the legal boundaries” of electoral law was one of the goals of the project.

They also contrasted their open-source creation with the government’s AI minister, which they said was created in secret and without transparency.

A spokesperson for Albania’s Central Election Commission (CEC) said it would examine any application received in accordance with the law.

“However, legally, the right to register as a candidate in elections belongs only to Albanian citizens who meet the criteria set out in the constitution and the electoral code,” it added.