An Urgent Message on Artificial Intelligence from the Kogui People

The Kogui people of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta argue that artificial intelligence cannot be separated from the human thought that creates it. In their understanding, all things first exist in Aluna, a living, generative thought that gives them form and purpose. AI therefore acts as a mirror that magnifies its makers’ values: care can make it serve life, while ambition, competition, accumulation, and domination can make it amplify harm. Rather than asking only how to align AI with human values, they ask what values its builders are putting into it, who makes those decisions, and whether access to vast stores of data amounts to genuine understanding.

The statement contrasts machine-readable information with knowledge learned through lived experience, relationships with a particular territory, and generations of practice - forms of understanding that cannot simply be captured as data. It describes Zhátukua, a Kogui process of consultation and verification in which knowledge is tested by its consequences: sound guidance restores balance, protects life, and strengthens community, while harmful or divisive outcomes must be reconsidered. The Kogui then turn the question back to human intelligence: do technology’s creators understand nature’s order, the origins of mind, or consciousness? They acknowledge modern science’s extraordinary technical achievements but challenge its unresolved questions and urge respect for other tested knowledge traditions. Their warning is that responsible AI requires humility, accountability, and alignment with the living world, not technical power alone.