Dan Thomson’s deeply personal journey led to Sensay, a platform creating AI replicas that don’t just mimic, they remember, grow, and reflect who we really are.
Dan Thomson never meant to become a tech CEO. He did not launch Sensay for the hype, the headlines, or even the money. He built it because, as he puts it, “there was nothing else I would ever want to work on again.”
Sensay is not just another AI platform. It is a deeply personal attempt to digitise identity. At its heart is a system that creates artificial humans. These are AI-driven replicas or echoes of real people. They are not avatars or gimmicky assistants. They are structured, learning personalities designed to respond to questions, grow from interactions, and potentially live on long after the original person has passed.
The idea came to Thomson long before AI exploded into public consciousness. He describes writing a crisis book, part philosophical journal, part existential reckoning, during a time when his life was in upheaval. He had moved from London to Spain, trading ambition for joy.
“No money, minimal salary,” he says, “but I had a better culture, better food, amazing people. It was a better life. And I asked myself, what are we even chasing?”
He was also dealing with memory loss after a head injury and the creeping fear of dementia. “I started thinking, how much of myself could I capture? Could I record the stories, the lessons, the essence of who I am so that others could still access that, even if I couldn’t?”
He imagined a future where people could create living reflections of themselves, not just data points or highlight reels, but full personalities with memory, context, humour, even the occasional swear word.
“I’m a person who likes to use the word cunt,” he says matter-of-factly. “It’s just natural to me. Why should my AI replica be sterilised into a corporate chatbot if that’s not who I am?”
That irreverence is deliberate. Thomson wants Sensay’s replicas to be authentic: messy, imperfect, human. He believes tech should not flatten personality into politeness. “Our personality is shaped not just by what we say, but how we say it and how others hear it.”
From Philosophy to Product
Thomson studied philosophy at university, and it shows. He talks easily about existentialism, identity theory, and simulation. He is not afraid to ask the big questions.
“Who are we, really? Are we who we think we are, or who others think we are? What happens when we have multiple versions of ourselves running in parallel? Can they co-evolve?”
Sensay’s answer is to build what Thomson calls a wisdom engine — an AI trained on a person’s life content. Emails, audio, video, social media, documents, and even audience feedback all become part of the replica’s brain. Over time, the AI becomes more refined. Thomson estimates that some replicas are already operating at 90 to 95 percent fidelity.
“People have had entire conversations with my replica without realising it wasn’t me,” he says. “And that’s not because it is perfect. It is because it sounds like me, it writes like me, and it answers like me.”
The onboarding process is being redesigned to make replica creation even faster. Soon, users will be able to enter their name, let the system pull public data, and get a first-layer version of themselves in minutes. From there, they can upload more content and shape the voice. If the AI is asked a question it cannot answer, it notifies the user, who can respond directly. That answer is then added to the training data.
Use Cases: From Grief Tech to Matchmaking
Sensay has identified 38 verticals, including grief support, coaching, health tools, onboarding, education, matchmaking, customer service, and even AI judges and museum guides. The team’s approach is not to build each vertical themselves, but to let others build on top of Sensay via API.
“Conferences are a great example,” Thomson says. “You create a mini replica of yourself when you register. It networks for you, finds matches, proposes coffee spots and times. Then it says: meet this person, at this place, for this reason.”
It is more than convenience. In grief tech, for instance, replicas could allow someone to keep speaking with a loved one after they are gone. They could answer questions, give comfort, or simply preserve a sense of presence.
Thomson himself plans to have his AI manage his assets after death. “If I do not have kids, my replica can take over and ensure my values and instructions continue. It will need to learn, adapt, and grow, but it will still be me.”
The Ethics of Replication
The ethics are complex. What happens when someone creates a replica of a person without consent? What if a celebrity or historical figure is mimicked convincingly?
“This is where blockchain comes in,” Thomson explains. “We need to verify identity, ownership, and control. Your replica should be connected to a verified identity, secured by a wallet, and anchored on-chain.”
Sensay will use blockchain quietly in the background, not to scare off mainstream users, but to offer authenticity and provenance. Smart contracts could govern replica access, permissions, and monetisation.
But even with the tech in place, Thomson returns to the deeper dilemma.
“If we can do this, should we? Can we have multiple versions of ourselves living in parallel, all representing us differently, each evolving in its own way?”
He does not claim to have the answers. He simply insists the questions must be asked.
“Technology does not stop just because it makes us uncomfortable. We have to shape it, not shy away from it.”
A Vision Beyond Exit
While Sensay has co-founders, advisors, and investors, Thomson’s motivation runs deeper than any exit. “This is not a financial play for me,” he says. “This is a life’s work.”
He now collaborates with thinkers whose books inspired him when he first sketched out the idea. “That’s surreal,” he says. “They were just authors on a page. Now they are partners helping build the thing.”
Sensay is live and active, with thousands of replicas already created. And the future roadmap includes enterprise integrations, content licensing, and a growing network of builders creating specialised applications on top of the core engine.
“This is the best wisdom engine in the world,” Thomson says. “And we’re just getting started.”
He is not trying to exit. He is trying to make meaning, and maybe, just maybe, to preserve what matters most about being human.
