--- title: "Prime Minister of European Country Names AI as Advisor" description: "Meet Ion, Romania's \"new honorary advisor,\" who is worryingly in charge of surveilling and interpreting the opinions of its citizens." date: "2023-03-03" modified: "2023-03-03" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/prime-minister-romania-ai-advisor" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai chatbot" - "the digest" --- # Prime Minister of European Country Names AI as Advisor ![Meet Ion, Romania's "new honorary advisor," who is worryingly in charge of surveilling and interpreting the opinions of its citizens.]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Bot Bureaucrat Both the rapidly increasing ubiquity and the power of AI can feel terrifying, but at least AIs aren't running the world yet, right? Well, maybe not *the world*, but how about Romania? The country's prime minister Nicolae Ciuca has just announced an AI assistant called "Ion" as the government's "new honorary advisor." "Hello. You gave me life. I am Ion. Now, my role is to represent you. Like a mirror," Ion said while introducing itself at a press conference, [as quoted by *The Washington Post*](). https://twitter.com/GuvernulRo/status/1630953019146752001 ## Voice of the People With a mirror-like, monolithic body and a somber, deep voice, you'd be forgiven for comparing Ion to HAL 9000 from the sci-fi classic "2001: A Space Odyssey." But instead of being in charge of a mere spaceship, Ion is responsible for gauging the sentiments of an entire country. "Ion will do, through artificial intelligence, what no human can: listen to all Romanians and represent them before the government of Romania," Ciuca said. And by listen, Ciuca really does mean *listen*. The AI will crawl social media to collect citizens' opinions and grievances, and then amalgamate and interpret these back to the government as policy ideas, who, at least in theory, will use the feedback to inform their decisions. Concerned citizens can also interact with Ion directly by using a provided web portal if they're really eager to get their point across. ## Call for Transparency The process that Ion uses to pick out social media posts, categorize them, and then formulate policies is about as transparent as its steely, mirrored exterior — that is to say, not very transparent at all. For critics, that's something to worry about. If Ion's workings aren't transparent, how can its citizens, whom it practically surveils, know it isn't being biased? Could it single those with dissenting opinions out and glean their real identities? In short, it's a thorny, ethical nightmare waiting to unfold. "Romanians should be informed and explained how this AI tool selects important posts, and on what criteria," demanded Kris Shrishak, an expert on AI regulation at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, in an interview with the *WaPo*. "This should be explained to the public." Besides, how good are AIs at gauging human opinions, wants, desires, and feelings? If [Microsoft's Bing AI chatbot]() is any indicator, probably not very. **More on AI:** *[Bank of America Obsessed With AI, Says It's the "New Electricity"]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()