新奇事件簿 亚马逊语音助手可提供健康建议（在线收听）

Technology has taken another step in helping us with our healthcare. We can now ask the digital device Alexa for advice if we are worried about our health. Alexa is a virtual assistant created by the website Amazon.com. It is capable of listening to people and answering their questions. As well as voice interaction capabilities, Alexa can make to-do lists, play music upon voice request, and give us the latest news. Now Alexa can answer our health queries. Amazon has linked up with the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK to add a health advice capability to the software. Alexa will be able to search the NHS website for information and find an answer that is agreed on by many health experts.

科技在帮助我们的医疗保健方面又迈出了一步。如果我们担心自己的健康，我们现在向数字设备Alexa寻求建议。Alexa是由Amazon.com创造的一个虚拟助手。它能够倾听并回答人们的问题。Alexa还具备语音交互功能，它可以根据语音要求列任务清单、播放音乐并为我们放送最近新闻。现在Alexa可以回答我们的健康问题。亚马逊公司与英国国民医疗服务体系（NHS）合作为这款软件添加了健康建议功能。Alexa将能够在NHS网站上搜索信息并找到多数健康专家都同意的答案。

Alexa's new health advice capability has been met with a mixed response. The UK Health Secretary said: "Technology like this is a great example of how people can access reliable, world-leading advice from the comfort of their home, reducing the pressure on our hardworking doctors and pharmacists." He added: "We want to empower every patient to take better control of their healthcare." Other people say we need to be careful about trusting the advice of a piece of software. They say we must go to a human doctor if we have serious health problems. Other people are concerned about privacy. The group Big Brother Watch is worried about hacking. It said: "It's a data protection disaster waiting to happen."

Alexa的新健康建议功能得到了不同的回应。英国卫生部长表示：“像这样的科技就是一个很好的例子，说明人们可以在自己的家中获得可靠的、世界顶级的建议，减轻我们辛勤工作的医生和药剂师的压力。”他补充道：“我们想让每位病人都能更好地控制自己的医疗保健。”其他人表示我们需要小心，不要轻易相信一款软件给出的建议。他们表示，如果我们有严重的健康问题，那么我们必须去看医生。其他人担心隐私问题。监察组织Big Brother Watch担心黑客入侵。其表示：“这是一场即将发生的数据保护灾难。”