Erion Veliaj, mayor of Tirana, the capital of Albania—a Balkan country in Southern Europe—posted a video of this speech on Instagram on the 6th. Veliaj’s video spread rapidly, surpassing 200,000 views in less than two days. In fact, he was arrested and imprisoned last year on corruption charges. After nearly 20 months in custody, unable to work in reality, an “AI Mayor” created via deepfake (AI-generated sophisticated synthetic video) made its appearance.
According to the UK’s *Telegraph* and others on the 7th, Veliaj stated in his Instagram speech on the 6th, “It has been 20 months since I was taken hostage, and I can only greet you through AI. Tirana is the glory of my life. To repay that, I will continue working even from the prison that holds me.”
The video released that day marked Veliaj’s first public address to citizens since his imprisonment in February last year. Veliaj remains incarcerated on charges of corruption and money laundering. Originally, an early election for mayor was scheduled for November last year, but the Constitutional Court ruled that “a mayor cannot be dismissed without following normal democratic procedures,” canceling the election. Veliaj is expected to retain his position until the local elections scheduled for the first half of year.
In other countries, imprisoned politicians have also used AI to communicate with the public. In July, an AI-generated former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro appeared at the launch of his son Flavio Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign. In 2023, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan urged support for his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), through an AI speech ahead of the general election.
Meanwhile, Albania previously made headlines for using AI in politics. Last year, “Diela,” appointed as the world’s first AI minister, took the spotlight. The Albanian government officially named Diela as Minister of Public Procurement in September last year. The symbolic move aimed to eliminate human intervention in public bidding processes to block corruption elements like bribery and coercion. However, Albanian actress Anila Visha sparked controversy by legally demanding, “I never knew my face and voice would be used this way by the government,” and requested their removal from Diela.
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