Estonia Develops AI Tool to Detect Draft Law Errors After Tax Wording Mistake

Estonia’s parliament passed amendments to the Gambling Tax Act in December that were intended to reduce the tax rate on remote gambling. The final text referred only to “skill games,” leaving online casinos outside the tax net for a full year and resulting in an estimated €24 million revenue shortfall.

A legal counsel for a gambling operator identified the discrepancy. Former undersecretary for digital transformation Luukas Ilves then tested the legislation with two AI models, which both flagged the inconsistency.

Ilves subsequently built a prototype called Apsakaleidja, or “Fuckup Finder,” that retrieves draft bills from the parliament website and flags issues such as broken references, contradictory wording, arithmetic errors, and impossible dates. Of the 112 bills currently listed, the tool rated 102 as high risk.

The prime minister stated that the incident showed AI can serve as a useful assistant and that agentic tools can empower civil society. ai program, which aims to double national productivity by 2035 through wider AI adoption.

April the government submitted a bill authorizing state and local authorities to use digital tools, including AI, to automate administrative processes. The measure remains under debate in parliament. In June the prime minister said Estonia plans to create official digital identities for AI agents if current timelines hold.

Officials have emphasized that automated decisions must include audit trails and that citizens retain the right to request human review. Catherine Flick, who researches technology ethics at the University of Staffordshire, questioned why human review was not already part of the drafting process.