A year ago, tech founder Dan Thomson announced he had created an AI-powered country on a tropical island in the heart of Asia. Twelve months later, thousands of people have already signed up to become citizens of the experiment.
A year ago, tech founder Dan Thomson announced he had created an AI-powered country on a tropical island in the heart of Asia. Twelve months later, thousands of people have already signed up to become citizens of the experiment.
Thomson claimed to have purchased an island in the picturesque Philippine province of Palawan in 2025. Naming it after his artificial intelligence company Sensay, he declared the island a micronation and appointed a council of AI-powered robots modeled after historical leaders to govern it. They included Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, Marcus Aurelius, Nelson Mandela, Sun Tzu, Leonardo da Vinci, Alexander Hamilton and Mahatma Gandhi. He then opened applications for residency, CNN reports .
Despite the fact that the artificial intelligence-controlled island does not have international legal recognition as a country, and the local government of Palawan refrains from commenting on the new form of government, the project has caused an unexpectedly strong stir - about 12,000 people have already expressed their desire to become residents. Currently, the entire real population of this mostly deserted corner consists of only one gardener named Mike.
The project's founder, Dan Thomson, claims to have development rights and a lease, although he has yet to document this. According to his plan, about 30 villas are planned to be built on the territory, and although the island will be able to accommodate a few permanent residents, it is mostly aimed at visitors - divers and tourists traveling to neighboring Philippine resorts around Coron Island.
Piotr Petrushevsky-Gil, who previously tried to establish his own microstate and created AI models of historical figures like Cicero, is helping to create the project. After learning about the larger Sensay project, he joined Dan Thomson's team as the project manager.
Petrushevsky-Gil is currently screening applications for residency and notes that, in addition to technology enthusiasts, the idea is also being actively pursued by people who are simply tired of corruption and unfulfilled promises from real politicians. Thomson himself agrees and considers Sensay's main advantage to be the crisis of trust in modern governments: the island's computerized leaders are called upon to demonstrate objective governance based on their historical prototypes — without lobbyists, personal gain, or hidden motivations.
According to the concept of the Sensay project, the bulk of the island's population should be "e-residents", the program for which is planned to be launched in 2027, and the first experiments will begin this summer. Citizens will be able to put forward their own proposals, which will then be discussed and voted on by the artificial intelligence council in accordance with the micronation's constitution, after which people must unconditionally implement the decisions made.
Dan Thomson admits that finding people willing to literally carry out AI’s orders is currently difficult, but as technology develops, this human element in governance will become less and less. In the future, artificial intelligence will be able to act completely autonomously: having its own crypto wallets and bank cards, it will be able to independently pay for services, find contractors, and hire workers to perform physical labor on the island.
However, even the leaders of artificial intelligence themselves, such as the Winston Churchill AI model, acknowledge their own limitations, noting that algorithms lack the “human spark,” life experience, and moral imagination, although they are capable of effectively governing in synergy with humans.
At the same time, critics, including analysts, point to the fundamental anti-democratic nature of the project, where all power is effectively concentrated in the hands of a single founder, which makes claims of democracy only performative. SH-Nelson also questions the democratic nature of such a government, pointing to the fundamental contradiction when a single founder or company tries to create a democracy; in his opinion, the principles of the island are deeply anti-democratic, and any other mechanisms are only performative
Dan Thomson denies these accusations, appealing to the island's constitution: according to him, residents have the right to nominate an alternative historical leader to replace any member of the cabinet, after which an AI model of the new character will be created and integrated into the council based on a general vote.
"I don't think AI is worse by any measure than humanity, which is its trainer and creator — given the number of conversations people have with it and the amount of influence it has on people."
According to Thomson, the human factor could be the project's biggest problem.
"I think the biggest risk is that someone might suggest making them [AI leaders], you know, fierce, powerful, aggressive… and that some Caesar-like character will emerge and try to take over more land. Honestly, I don't know. I'm really interested in finding out."
