Straight out of a dystopian thriller, a distant island within the Philippines is getting ready to be dominated fully by synthetic intelligence – with a authorities of robots primarily based on historical past’s biggest minds.
Stretching throughout the nation’s western edge, Palawan is an archipelago of over 1,700 tropical havens boasting turquoise lagoons, lush rainforests and white-sand seashores.
Amongst them is Sensay, a tiny 3.6km island purchased in 2025 by tech founder Dan Thomson, who runs an AI chatbot firm of the identical title.
His important goal? Establishing it as a micronation ruled by a council of 17 AI-powered robots.
The British entrepreneur believes his elite fleet has what it takes to efficiently govern – in spite of everything, they’re modelled on famend historic figures identified for his or her divine knowledge, distinctive expertise, and management and peace-making expertise.
The Cupboard will function AI replicas of Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, Marcus Aurelius, Nelson Mandela, Leonardo da Vinci, Solar Tzu and Gandhi, all educated utilizing the precise writings, speeches, teachings and philosophies of their namesakes.
These replicas are designed to deliberate, argue from the viewpoint of their personas, and vote on whether or not to include proposals into the island’s structure.
Whereas they could have the talents to rule, critics and Thomson himself warning that issues may go terrifyingly mistaken if the AI evolves greater than deliberate.
This tiny island within the western Philippines may quickly be ruled fully by AI leaders – with personas primarily based on historic governors, artists and peace-makers
The island of Sensay was bought in 2025 by tech founder Dan Thomson (pictured)
The AI at present depends on human proxies to manually implement its selections, with a long-term plan to attach the AI council to unbiased banking playing cards and crypto wallets.
The island operates a dual-token economic system of Knowledge-Credit for civic providers and SNSY Token for international commerce.
Nevertheless, giving software program the facility to rent and pay employees in the true world with out human approval is a large threat and will result in harmful and costly errors.
Chatting with CNN Journey, Dan stated: ‘If it begins buying weapons and attacking neighbouring islands, that may be a foul state of affairs,’ although he shortly added, ‘I feel it is extraordinarily unlikely’.
There’s a ‘Human Override Meeting’ in place to assist counteract doubtlessly dangerous choices made by the digital council, comprising of 9 elected residents.
Thus far, the undertaking is only an experiment with out worldwide recognition, although it has unusually begun accepting residents – with 1000’s expressing their curiosity.
The island is at present residence to only one individual – a groundskeeper known as a ‘man referred to as Mike’ by undertaking communications advisor Emily Keogh.
Nevertheless, Dan – who claims to carry a lease and growth rights for Sensay – plans to construct as much as 30 villas on the island, remodeling it from an remoted location into a well-liked stopover for the throngs of vacationers who go to Palawan every year.
Palawan (pictured), a province positioned alongside the western fringe of the Philippines, is famed for its turqouise lagoons, white-sand seashores and plush rainforests
He stated: ‘It is huge, but it surely’s not nothing. I feel it will be largely guests; there may be some everlasting residents, however largely guests that come from the neighboring islands round Coron Island.’
Over 12,000 folks have registered their curiosity in turning into an e-resident on the island, a quantity the founder says he hadn’t predicted, although he believes is on account of ‘so many individuals having such little religion in their very own governments’.
An e-resident is a digital id that enables non-residents to securely entry a rustic’s e-services.
Nevertheless, there are plans within the pipeline to finally host everlasting residents.
Bodily deployment on the precise island will comply with a phased rollout within the coming years, beginning with this yr’s launch of ‘Observer Visas’, which permits digital backers to bodily observe progress.
Dan hopes to deploy sustainable, renewable micro-grids and open-source analysis labs onsite later in 2026.
2027 will see the official launch of the total digital e-residency programme, the implementation of 100 per cent renewable vitality, and the graduation of analysis residencies for bodily settlers, in keeping with Sensay’s web site.
By encoding the insights and ethics of those people, Thomson hopes the island can flourish with coverage that’s ‘data-driven, rights-anchored, and ‘audited for equity’.
As well as, the creator predicts the computer-driven island will present what occurs ‘with out the form of lobbyists, with out the private beneficial properties and motivations, simply holding it purely goal, primarily based on their historic characters’.
