Kogui Elders to AI Builders: You Don't Know Where You Come From, So How Do You Know Where You're Going?

An Urgent Message on Artificial Intelligence from the Kogui People

The Kággaba people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, known as the Kogui, address the builders of artificial intelligence with a warning rather than a protest. AI, they argue, is a mirror that magnifies whatever thought shapes it — and it can only be shaped by humans. They question whether access to data equals understanding, noting that their knowledge was never written down and cannot be captured in any archive. Their deeper question is not about artificial intelligence but about human intelligence: does it align with the order of nature?