In a recent conference at the UP Diliman (UPD) College of Engineering (COE) Library, an international information expert said one way for UPD to further adapt to Artificial Intelligence (AI) prevalence is to understand and manage it.
Wong Woei Fuh in his lecture, Confident AI in Academia: Building Competency, Integrity, and Smarter Research Practices from the US Institutional Experience, said AI is like a knife. It is a necessary tool that can cause great good or harm depending on how it is used.
The former Web of Science expert at Thomson Reuters said, “Would you let your six-year-old kid [be left alone] in the kitchen [while] using a knife? But you need a knife to cut an apple nicely, right? But then you know a six-year-old kid using a knife cutting an apple could be very, very dangerous.”
Wong said one way of bridging the gap between students who are using AI in their studies and educators who are hesitant to embrace the technology is to create a safe AI “sandbox” where both student and educator can safely engage in.
“When you bring technology into a place like a university library, you need to manage it. You need to make sure that the student and the teachers know how to use that knife in the kitchen safely but at the same time [be able to] cut the nice apple correctly,” he said.
Wong delivered his lecture on the first day of eResources Day 2026, the annual event where the COE, through the Library Faculty Committee and the COE Library, reviews and selects the electronic library resources, such as database subscriptions, that will best serve the college for the next academic year.
Held at the COE Library Learning Commons Building, eResources Day 2026 was turned into a conference with the theme The AI and Open Access Paradox: Navigating Complexity in Teaching and Learning.
Other lectures delivered were Practical AI Workflows for Discovery, Evidence, and Integrity by Iris Hsu, consultant from iesResearch; Forbidden Love Affair: The Core Challenges of AI in Research by Johan Jang, PhD, strategic engagement manager from Elsevier Southeast Asia, and Stronger Together, Advancing Open Access, Why and What Else? by John Morris, manager of Open Research for APAC based in Tokyo.
The second day of eResources Day 2026 was devoted to product presentations from educational materials suppliers while the third day consisted of the actual analysis and deliberations of which eResources the COE Library will acquire for the next academic year.
