The development of the new generation of artificial intelligence and the future prospect of the autonomous evolution of artificial general intelligence have highlighted the importance of information need research. The investigation on information need not only relates to the deepening understanding of human need and thus, human nature, but also involves the understanding of the nature of artificial general intelligence and its driving mechanism of autonomous evolution. The research of information and its evolution has provided conditions for the investigation on information need to expand from organism to information agent, so that it is possible to understand the information need more effectively and move towards the unified understanding of human intelligence, artificial intelligence and their common evolutionary mechanism. Information need is the desire of information agents to find and obtain information in order to meet their conscious or unconscious needs. It is not only the driven engine of intelligent evolution, but also the performance of human nature and the basic characteristics of artificial general intelligence. The reciprocity of information and the intercommunity of information needs to be satisfied and produced determine that the artificial general intelligence, which has developed to a certain level, may have the common nature with human being. This involves not only the core contents of the evolution of artificial intelligence and its mechanism, but also the deepening understanding of the nature of artificial intelligence and the basis of corresponding ethical support. In conclusion，information need is an important area of artificial intelligence research.