Dr Sarath Obeysekera

I often reflect on my days as a young engineering student in the former Soviet Union. My mentor, a Russian Jew and a passionate patriot of Russia and its revolution, frequently spoke about how a nation becomes powerful through knowledge, discipline, and scientific inquiry. 

Under leaders such as Stalin, he believed that Russia transformed itself into an industrial and scientific giant because it encouraged rigorous study and intellectual curiosity.

I was fortunate to receive both theoretical and practical training in oil and gas exploration, learning about the machinery and technologies of the 1960s and 1970s.

 During those days there was no internet, no search engines, and certainly no artificial intelligence. Knowledge had to be earned through long hours in libraries and laboratories.

At one stage, my professor entrusted me with an important research task. I had to develop a method for predicting the remaining operational life of enormous eight-cylinder reciprocating gas compressors. These machines pumped natural gas through large pipelines and into underground porous limestone formations for storage before it was later cooled to nearly minus 160 degrees Celsius and converted into liquefied natural gas (LNG).

My research focused on the hydrodynamics of the lubricating oil film in the journal bearings of these compressors.

 I travelled to libraries searching for books and scientific papers, studying every available publication on the subject. I eventually developed a mathematical formula and tested it on actual compressors in Kaluga, a suburb of Moscow. 

I still remember how the engineering fraternity there helped me verify my calculations, despite our journey being made without official permission from Soviet authorities.

The most valuable lesson I learned came from Professor Kozobkov. His words remain with me even today:
Do not try to invent before you study what has already been invented. Visit libraries, examine the literature, understand existing formulas, and then derive a better one.”
This advice is remarkably relevant in the age of Artificial Intelligence.

Today, many educators fear that AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini will make students lazy thinkers. I respectfully disagree. AI should not be prohibited. Instead, it should be guided and harnessed.

I propose a simple methodology for schools. Before students use AI to write an essay, they should first write a short paragraph expressing their own understanding, opinions, questions, and ideas on the topic. 

They should then submit this paragraph together with the prompt they gave to the AI system and the final AI-assisted essay.

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This initial paragraph will reveal the depth of the student’s thinking. It will show whether the child merely asked the machine to think for him or whether he used AI as a partner to expand his own ideas.

The libraries of my youth have now become digital and intelligent. Artificial Intelligence is perhaps the greatest library ever created by mankind. But just as my professor advised me decades ago, young people must first learn to think, question, and explore before asking for answers.

The future does not belong to those who merely use AI.

 It belongs to those who can ask profound questions, challenge existing knowledge, and use AI to discover what has not yet been discovered. 

• The true purpose of education is not to create children who can copy answers from machines; it is to create curious minds capable of exploring the universe and imagining possibilities beyond the limits of today’s knowledge.

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera