Part III-010

Q: How will the way we access information change in the future?

A: To be honest, I think we have just been through a big change, namely the development of the Internet, which allows us to find almost any kind of information we want. That said, I’d hazard a guess that one forthcoming(即将到来的) big change might be the use of voice to search for and take in information. The reason I think so is that voice recognition software is advancing in leaps and bounds(一日千里), and because people are reading less. We take in more and more information through sound and video, rather than reading text.

Q: Do you think the ability to find information will be an important skill in the future?

A: I’d say it’s already an important skill, students and people at work need to know where to find good quality, reliable information. At the same time, I suspect it could well be less important in the future because artificial intelligence will take care of finding the information we need. For instance, nowadays you have virtual assistants like ‘Siri’ who are better at finding information on the Internet than we are. The valued skill in the future will be knowing what to do with the information, such as being able to analyse and evaluate it.