"If every mistake led to a lesson and some benefit, we'd all be the best in the world. Luukas Kristjan Ilves has given the Riigikogu a mistake-finder. If something like this were put to use, we'd be better again. And there's something to say about learning from your mistakes," Reform Party MP Kristen Michal wrote on social media Wednesday, referring to the recent scandal where a clerical error caused Estonia to inadvertently exempt online casinos from tax for 2026.

Luukas Kristjan Ilves, former deputy secretary general for digital development at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and currently an advisor to Ukraine's minister for digital transformation, sharply criticized the recently revealed error in the Gambling Tax Act on Monday. He argued that failing to use artificial intelligence in lawmaking should be outright prohibited.

"I fed the Gambling Tax Act and its amendments into Claude and Gemini (AI platforms – ed.) and they immediately identified inconsistencies written into the law. The only conclusion to be drawn from this is that no one at the Ministry of Finance or in the Riigikogu (nor, frankly, in the press or civil society) bothered to conduct any sort of review," Ilves wrote.

On Wednesday, he unveiled an AI-based tool he had developed to identify mistakes in legislative texts, emphasizing that it is still a beta version and can certainly be improved.

"In a couple of hours, I hand-coded a more systematic prototype: the 'Apsakaleidja' [Mistake Finder] pulls all draft bills currently under deliberation from the Riigikogu website, analyzes them automatically and flags issues: inconsistent use of defined terms, broken references to other sections, contradictions between the explanatory memorandum and the legal text, arithmetic errors, impossible dates," Ilves explained. "The next steps could include comparisons with existing legislation (does the amendment conflict with other laws?), automated alerts to bill authors or relevant committees when something suspicious is detected, early-stage analysis of draft bills (while still being prepared by the government) and, of course, much more refined analytical logic," he added.

In his post, Ilves asked the public for suggestions on what other features the tool could include and offered to hand over leadership of the project.

The use of AI in legislative drafting has also been raised by Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs Liisa Pakosta (Eesti 200), who said on ETV's "Esimene stuudio" talk show Tuesday that Riigikogu members should use AI tools to help draft and review bills, as such tools could identify absurd mistakes in the text.

Sworn attorney and former Chancellor of Justice Allar Jõks said on ETV's "Terevisioon" Wednesday that using AI as a support tool might not be a bad idea. "But if AI starts replacing members of the Riigikogu, then we might want to ask whether we really need a 101-member parliament to that extent," he added.

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