I speak to you heart to heart. My name is Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. I am a member of the Chickasaw and Ihanktonwan Nations, White Swan Oyate,
For generations, my ancestors and I have carried a simple message to the world’s leaders: war solves absolutely nothing. It leaves graves, broken families, wounded communities, cruelty, and suffering passed from one generation to the next.
Today, you are responsible for stewarding technologies of extraordinary power. AI can heal disease, expand universal education, overcome poverty, restore and protect Mother Earth, and end war.
The resources flowing into your companies are immense and are expected to exceed $ 1 trillion in 2026 and beyond.
At the same time, governments will be spending $3 trillion, at least in 2026, on war, more than $8 billion every day. That amount is expected to increase every year. At the same time, nearly half of our beloved human family lives in poverty on less than $8.00 per day.
In the past few months alone, more than 20 million members of our Human Family have fallen into poverty as a direct result of war.
Behind every one of these figures are beloved members of our human family who treasure their children, loved ones, and life ever as much as we do.
The continued growth of artificial intelligence and war cannot continue. Both require increasing amounts of money, energy, water, minerals, and land. If they continue expanding without moral direction, they will compete for the same limited resources while placing a greater burden upon our human family and Mother Earth. Many and growing numbers of our families and ourselves will not survive the deepening devastation.
AI has a direct interest in peace and ending war. By ending war, we can release the resources needed to overcome poverty, restore our Mother Earth, develop clean energy, and guide AI toward its highest and most beneficial purposes.
I come to each of you with respect, compassion, and hope, with an invitation.
It is evident that some relatives want to use AI for war, surveillance, domination, power, and control.
I also believe that many of you have no desire to endanger the future of your children and grandchildren. You want them, as does most humanity, to inherit a Mother Earth and a world in which they can grow without fear and poverty, and want the intelligence you are creating to become a force for life, not death.
That is why I reach out to each of you to join us in 11 Days of Global Unity to PROVE Peace Is Possible, starting September 11 and culminating on September 21, the United Nations 25th anniversary of the International Day of Peace, a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence.
This is a perfect opportunity to show that AI can be guided by compassion, wisdom, moral courage, and love, and that peace is possible.
I call on each of you to put your most capable AI innovations to work for peace, supporting peacebuilders and communities working for peace, and to verify that peace is possible through a twenty-four-hour global ceasefire and worldwide day of nonviolence on September 21.
Imagine if the trillions now devoted to warfare were redirected to heal our communities, end planetary poverty, restore the waters and lands of Mother Earth, and develop peaceful, sustainable technologies to uplift our Human Family. Imagine what could become possible if Artificial Intelligence were joined with the deepest wisdom of our human heart.
What legacy do we wish to leave to our children and grandchildren?
Will history remember us for increasing wealth, power, war, and the destruction of our Mother Earth? Or will it remember us as those who recognized this moment of choice, accepted the responsibility placed before us, and joined forces to end war?
Our children and grandchildren will live with the choices we make today. Let us walk this path together in unity. Let us demonstrate that AI can serve the sacredness of life and help us to choose peace, live peace, and end war.