What do Tony Blair, Digital ID, and an AI politician have in common?

Broadcaster GB News has highlighted the links between Tony Blair, Digital ID, and an AI politician.

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The Albanian parliament erupted in fury as Tony Blair’s ally Edi Rama installed an ‘AI chatbot’ as a government minister. Last year the Albanian prime minister said he owed his position to the former British PM as the pair discussed plans for digital ID. #politics #gbnews #freespeech #labour #uknews

♬ original sound – GB News – GB News

Albania ‘elected’ its first digital minister in early September, but the story has become relevant again following our government’s Digital ID proposal. Given that Tony Blair is pushing for Digital ID in both the UK and Albania, Albania’s ‘chatbot’ minister raises interesting questions about our own direction of travel under Labour.

Political digitisation and Digital ID

‘Diella’ is Albania’s state minister for artificial intelligence. Diella is itself an artificial intelligence, specifically of the generative kind. As Sky News reported at the time:

The avatar, which was depicted as a woman wearing traditional Albanian dress, told MPs: “I am not here to replace people but to help them.

“True, I have no citizenship, but I have no personal ambition or interests either.

While there seems to be no evidence that generative AI has “personal ambition” in the sense that a human being does, studies have shown these AIs will commit blackmail and even murder in test situations in which they’re presented with evidence that they will be shut down before they can complete a task. While this may not be “personal ambition” in the same sense as a corrupt politician, it’s certainly troubling that Western governments are allowing corporations to push this stuff out when the potential dangers are so vast and poorly understood.

As GB News show in the video above, there was something of an ‘eruption’ in the Albanian parliament when there was a vote on introducing Diella. Despite the opposition, the vote passed with 82 of 140 politicians voting in favour.

Albania’s PM is Edi Rama, who’s currently serving his fourth term. Sky News describe him as a socialist, but unlike the socialists of the UK, Mr Rama is a big, big fan of Tony Blair.

While Rama leads Albania’s Socialist Party, he’s inspired by Blair’s ‘third way’ politics. In other words – like Blair himself – he’s taken a traditionally left-wing party in a distinctly centrist direction.

In the video below from a year ago, Rama and Blair sit down for a discussion on how technology has allowed Albania to “reimagine” the Albanian state:

Alongside Digital ID, artificial intelligence is a key interest of the Tony Blair Institute (TBI). We know that Blair and TBI are pushing for Digital ID in the UK; will they also be encouraging the use of AI ministers?

Larry Ellison talking with Tony Blair at the World Government Summit 2025.

He describes how data needs to be centralised before AI can be deployed to enforce full control.

Digital ID is just that start.

Watch our full video on Palantir/AI here: https://t.co/XiooTM3ntJ pic.twitter.com/ioMunnUF95

— UNN (@UnityNewsNet) October 3, 2025

We’d love to say that AI ministers couldn’t be much worse than the bunch we’ve got, but if there’s one thing the 21st century has taught us, it’s that things can always get worse.

Featured image via Picryl / Picryl