Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME. Albania's new AI-generated minister Diella speaks during the parliamentary session for the voting of the new government of Albania, in Tirana on Sept. 18, 2025. Albania's new AI-generated minister Diella speaks during the parliamentary session for the voting of the new government of Albania, in Tirana on Sept. 18, 2025. Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME. It's been three years since the launch of ChatGPT gave hundreds of millions of people access to a kind of digital genie in their pocket--and things have been getting stranger by the month. Besides billions of AI-generated emails and the technology's widespread disruption of education and cognitive work, in 2025, some people began to fall in love with their AIs.

Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME. Albania's new AI-generated minister Diella speaks during the parliamentary session for the voting of the new government of Albania, in Tirana, on September 18, 2025. Albania's new AI-generated minister Diella speaks during the parliamentary session for the voting of the new government of Albania, in Tirana, on September 18, 2025. Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME. In September, Albania appointed an AI system to a cabinet-level position--a world-first. Called Diella (Albanian for "sun"), the system was declared "Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence," and tasked by Albania's Prime Minister with addressing corruption in government contracting.

FILE - In this file photo dated Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014, Serbia's Stefan Mitrovic grabs a banner containing the Albanian flag attached to a drone flying above the pitch during the Euro 2016 Group I qualifying match between Serbia and Albania in Belgrade, Serbia. The banner prompted fan violence with the match was suspended, and a man who claims to have flown the drone has been detained but it is revealed Saturday July 29, 2017, that Albania's soccer federation is calling on Albanian authorities to stop his extradition to Serbia.