market · October 7, 2026
By Joe Jurczyk, Editor
Albanian mayor in custody posts AI avatar video to Instagram
Erion Veliaj, mayor of Tirana, who has been in custody since February 2025 and denies corruption charges, posted a four-minute AI avatar video to his official Instagram account, labelled as AI-generated. In it the avatar says "I cannot send this greeting except through artificial intelligence" and promises free school lunches. TNW notes the EU's AI labelling rules do not apply in Albania because it is not an EU member.
Erion Veliaj, the mayor of Tirana who has been in custody since February 2025, posted a four-minute AI avatar video to his official Instagram account on 7 October 2026, as reported by The Next Web's Ana-Maria Stanciuc. The video is labelled as AI-generated.
In the video, the avatar says "I cannot send this greeting except through artificial intelligence" and promises free school lunches. Veliaj denies the corruption charges against him.
The Next Web notes that the EU's AI labelling rules do not apply in this case because Albania is not an EU member. For the full report, see The Next Web's coverage at the link above.
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