A number of Ukrainian publications reported that Albania’s AI Minister Diella was suspected of accepting a bribe in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and was taken offline. In fact, this «news» came from the humorous Croatian website Newsbar.
A number of Ukrainian publications reported that Albania’s AI Minister Diella was suspected of accepting a bribe in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and was taken offline. In fact, this «news» came from the humorous Croatian website Newsbar.
This was reported by the publications «Glavkom», «Channel 5», InfoResist, «Bukvy» and others, without any notes about the satirical nature of the material.
«Minister Diella, responsible for public procurement and transparency, is suspected of receiving a bribe of 14 Bitcoin (approximately 1.3 million euros) in exchange for „algorithmic optimization“ of a tender for the construction of motorways», the Newsbar article says.
It claims that, thanks to machine learning, the AI allegedly independently concluded that accepting a bribe is «standard operating protocol» necessary for the successful performance of duties in the Balkans, and not a criminal offense.
The description of Newsbar states that it is a «satirical and humorous portal» that publishes fake news.
«The news published on the portal is fictional, created for the purpose of creating a satirical and humorous work, and therefore should not be taken seriously. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or institutions is coincidental,» the authors of the project note.
They warn that real people may appear in content published on the portal, but only as participants in fictional events, and all their views, actions, events related to them, and any statements attributed to them in the text are fictional.
The Newsbar website is full of news that US President Donald Trump has received an award from FIFA as Europe’s top scorer, and claims that Greta Thunberg will be handed over to Putin along with Donetsk and Luhansk as part of a peace deal.
At the time of writing this article, the «Bukva» publication has already removed the material about the corruption of the AI Minister, but this «news» is still available on many others.
Recall that Albania was the first in the world to appoint an AI official. This is not a person in charge of AI, but a virtual minister created from pixels and code that works on the basis of artificial intelligence.
