Siri, Alexa may have made your lives easier, but can they also educate you?

Convenience is atop the list of benefits Siri and Alexa have brought to millions. But is it possible that they’re promoting literacy, too?

Certainly, it’s not a benefit that immediately comes to mind. After all, we speak and Siri writes. We ask a question and Alexa enters the search terms for us. Load your iPhone up with podcasts, or ask Siri or Alexa to find you the bestseller you’ve been wanting from Audible.com, and you might never need to read a book again. With each voice-to-text improvement, we seem to be moving backward — toward a culture that relies less and less on letters or the ability to read and write.


History tells a different story. As the scope for oral communication expands, we can take comfort, and some instruction, from the variety of forms literacy has taken since its beginning in the West.

Cuba elects its first non-Castro president in 60 years: Miguel Diaz-Canel

Cuba is poised for the end of an era today as President Raul Castro steps down, formally handing power to his long-time deputy Miguel Diaz-Canel -- and thereby ending his family's six-decade grip on the island.

The silver-haired Diaz-Canel, 57 -- a top Communist Party figure who has served as first vice president since 2013 -- will become the island's first leader born after the 1959 revolution and the first in 60 years who is not named Castro.

Between them, father of the nation Fidel and his younger brother Raul made the Caribbean island a key player in the Cold War and helped keep communism afloat despite the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Raul, now 86, has been in power since 2006, when he took over after illness sidelined Fidel, who seized power in the revolution.

Diaz-Canel, who has spent years climbing the party ranks, was named the sole candidate for the presidency yesterday.

Colombia poll results could dent leftist Petro's presidency hopes

A dismal showing by Colombia's left-wing Decencia coalition in legislative voting could bode poorly for its candidate, Gustavo Petro, in a looming presidential election, while in party primaries right-wing rival Ivan Duque scored a more emphatic victory.

The outcome of the lower house and Senate elections and primaries for left and right-wing parties, all held on Sunday, were keenly watched as the deeply polarised Andean country heads towards an election set for May 27.
Investors have been uneasy over possibility of Petro, a former member of the disbanded M-19 guerrilla group and ex-mayor of Bogota, winning the presidency as he has been running neck and neck with Duque in opinion polls.

But in Sunday's legislative elections, Petro's Decencia won just 1.7 percent of the vote in the lower house and 3.4 percent in the Senate.