I think the premise of the writer's concern is that people who would otherwise be doing more critical reading (looking seriously at the source of the informatio

I think the premise of the writer's concern is that people who would otherwise be doing more critical reading (looking seriously at the source of the information they're getting, exploring different sources, etc.) are just going to accept what's spoonfed to them. I don't think that's valid, because I think people are using Alexa only for very casual research - the equivalent of reading the box at the top of a Google query or the first paragraph of a Wikipedia article, or pulling a reference book off a shelf and reading a few sentences, in other words, cases where you wouldn't be doing much critical reading anyway. Voice interfaces don't make a lot of sense for doing serious research, it takes a long time to read text out loud, you can't skim, or skip things, etc. They're great for things like getting a definition of a dictionary word without looking up from your book, or settling a bet about the population of Ireland.