The Albanian government has discovered the magic bullet to combat tax evasion and financial crime: Artificial Intelligence. According to the document published for public consultation on the “National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence”, the new model will analyze electronic invoices and customs declarations in real time, detecting suspicious transactions and reducing corruption. In short, the era of pen and paper is over.
The irony is that this AI will be used by the very government that failed to protect even the personal data of its citizens. The government that boasts of “online services” while still forcing citizens to carry cardboard folders around offices, now promises an “intelligent, fully digital workflow.”
What about corruption? Until now, Albanian thieves have not needed sophisticated algorithms. They have stolen with pencil and paper, often making mistakes in calculations. And when SPAK caught them, it was not thanks to any machine learning, but because the thieves had forgotten to delete the fake invoice from the desk drawer.
Therefore, while the government sells us the tale of Artificial Intelligence that will “dismantle corruption,” the only intelligence that citizens see every day is the bureaucratic and facade one, which produces more queues and procedures than real solutions. And unfortunately, it is more sophisticated than any algorithm.
