My first thought was that this is as close as anybody will come to living out the Civilization video game series in real life. So to speak.

An island in the Philippines, bought by the AI chatbot company Sensay, has created a council of 17 AIs modeled on famed historical leaders to serve as the island’s government.

If you think this means that an AI Eleanor Roosevelt is hanging out on a tropical island with an AI Confucius, then that’s exactly what this means. No, literally.

putting the ai in island

“We are a self-declared micronation conducting a diplomatic outreach program while respecting international law and environmental treaties,” according to Sensay.

There’s not a whole hell of a lot of information online about Sensay Island, which is located in the Western Palawan province of the Philippines. It’s a tiny raindrop of an island, 3.4 square kilometers of beach, rainforest, and coral lagoons.

“Human history offers unparalleled wisdom yet repeats the same mistakes,” reads Sensay Island’s website. “By encoding the insights of exemplary leaders—Marcus Aurelius, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela and more—into transparent, ethics-bound AI systems, we aim to transcend short-term politics and govern for long-term flourishing.

“Sensay Island is where policy is data-driven, rights-anchored, and continuously audited for fairness. Residents remain free, informed, and empowered to override or amend AI decisions through democratic safeguards embedded in our Charter.”

Honestly, it sounds exactly like the thing somebody says right before the dinosaurs crash through the security perimeter and storm the place.

Sensay Island’s rulers (the real ones) lay out the three-step process for bringing issues to the AI council: “Problems are presented to the Council with relevant data. Each AI entity provides perspective based on their domain expertise. Consensus protocol synthesizes inputs into a final decision.”

You can check out the entire list of all 17 AIs serving on Sensay Island’s governing council. Marcus Aurelius may have been wise for a Roman emperor, but he was still the head of an imperial power who was the head of a state that made war crimes a well worn part of its repertoire for maintaining power.

And Winston Churchill may have been an inspiring wartime leader and orator in defense of democracy, but he had a hand in the massively deadly Bengal Famine of 1943. Oh yeah, and he was pretty racist. I have to laugh, though, at the idea of the real Churchill finding out that someday an AI caricature of himself would be serving in a government on a different island nation alongside Mahatma Gandhi, who he despised.

As a fun idea, a thought exercise, I dig the idea. It’s entertaining. It brings history to life, sort of. As a legitimate test run for governance through AI, though, I’m deeply, sharply skeptical. We’re only one year removed from a major AI telling us to eat glue.

There is a “Human Override Assembly” of nine elected residents who served as safeguards to counteract potentially harmful decisions made by the AI council, which include “existential risks or (actions that) fundamentally contradict human values,” which are laid out in Sensay Island’s charter.

Even though it’s not a nation recognized internationally (and probably never will be), you can apply for “visas” to visit, with residency applications already live. If you end up moving there, give me a holler. I’ll bring the rum and the limes.