Insyte Weekly: Google Using AI For Early Disease Detection, Music Streaming Booming in India, the Rise of 'Dark Tourism', and more

This week saw significant developments and interesting trends across various industries and sectors such as Artificial Intelligence, Tourism, Media & Entertainment and Education.

Media & Entertainment

The IMI Digital Music Study 2023 reveals that India's music market is thriving, with streaming leading the industry, accounting for 88% of recorded music revenues. Indians are heavy music consumers, with an average of 26.7 hours of listening per week. Bollywood music dominates the top genres, while radio remains popular, particularly among older listeners. Live streaming and paid subscriptions are growing (58.5% of respondents opt for paid subscriptions), with YouTube being the most used platform (95.2% of respondents use the platform for music). Despite the rise of legitimate streaming, piracy remains a significant issue, especially among younger audiences, emphasizing the need for stronger enforcement to protect the industry.

Samsung Electronics has unveiled its latest gaming monitors, including the groundbreaking Odyssey 3D, at Gamescom 2024 in Cologne, Germany. The Odyssey 3D offers glasses-free 3D viewing using innovative light field display technology, eye tracking, and view mapping for an optimized experience. Available in 27” and 37” sizes, it features 4K resolution, a 165Hz refresh rate, and a 1ms response time. Samsung also expanded its Odyssey OLED lineup with new models, continuing its dominance in the gaming monitor market. At Gamescom, Samsung's immersive booth showcases these monitors, offering exclusive gameplay experiences with highly anticipated titles like "inZOI," "Genshin Impact," and "World of Warcraft: The War Within."

Edtech

Alexander Slagg highlights the importance of parent engagement in student success, supported by extensive research, but notes that schools often struggle to maintain effective communication with parents. Generative AI offers a solution by automating tasks and personalizing communication, making it easier for teachers to engage with parents despite their busy schedules. The Mesquite Independent School District in Texas created AYO, an AI-powered platform, to enhance parent engagement by using student data to personalize communications and suggest relevant activities for families. This approach not only improves parent-teacher relationships but also boosts teacher productivity by streamlining communication efforts.

AI

As cited by Luke Fraser, the demand for AI skills in South Africa has surged by 94% over the past three years, according to CareerJunction's Q2 2024 Employment Insights. This rise is accompanied by a 61% increase in job seekers with AI expertise, particularly in fields such as Data Analysis, Software Development, Systems Administration, and Teaching. Globally, similar trends are observed, with South African job seekers highly aware of the need for reskilling due to the impact of Generative AI (GenAI). More than 36% of job seekers in South Africa believe that GenAI will greatly influence their job roles over the next five years, indicating a need for reskilling (as shown by the green bars in the graphic) while 46% of Kenyan job seekers expect GenAI to affect job demand, necessitating upskilling significantly. In contrast, only 10% of respondents in Germany think that GenAI will have a major impact on their job roles within the next five years.

Furthermore, Sarah White also shared some insights from a survey by Pluralsight, involving 1,200 executives and IT professionals from the US and UK, which reveals a strong sense of concern among IT workers. About 74% of IT professionals fear that AI will render many of their skills obsolete, and 69% worry about being replaced by AI. Despite these concerns, 96% of IT professionals are prioritizing AI skill development to enhance job security.

Google revealed that its researchers are exploring the potential of using AI to extract health insights from the sounds our bodies make, such as coughs and speech, through its bioacoustic foundation model, HeAR (Health Acoustic Representations). HeAR is designed to detect early signs of diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by analyzing acoustic data. Trained on 300 million pieces of audio data, including 100 million cough sounds, HeAR excels in identifying health-related sound patterns and requires less training data, making it accessible for healthcare research even in data-scarce environments. Salcit Technologies, an Indian respiratory healthcare company, is using HeAR to enhance its AI model, Swaasa, to improve early TB detection through cough analysis.

Tourism

As reported by Kiran Mollow, Cape Town's Airbnb market has surged, with 23,564 listings, surpassing cities like Berlin and Barcelona. This growth has sparked debate over the impact of short-term rentals on housing, tourism, and local communities. While Airbnb argues that its listings contribute significantly to the economy and help hosts meet rising living costs, critics warn of a housing crisis and gentrification, as property values soar and neighborhoods change character. Experts and industry leaders emphasize the need for balanced regulations that promote sustainable tourism while protecting residents' rights. Suggestions include capping rentals and promoting lesser-known regions to distribute tourism more evenly and prevent overtourism in popular areas.

The NY Post reports there’s an unexpected rise in interest among wealthy, well-travelled older Australians who seek to visit conflict-prone or less-travelled destinations like Afghanistan, Iraq, and West Africa. This phenomenon is known as ‘Dark Tourism’. Despite Australian government travel advisories warning against visiting such places due to safety concerns, these adventurous travellers are motivated by a desire for authentic experiences, cultural immersion, and exploring regions rich in history. Local travel agency Forward Travel specializes in creating tailor-made itineraries to these unique destinations, catering to tourists willing to pay for such exclusive experiences. Travelling to these areas is not cheap and requires careful planning, but inquiries and bookings from older tourists looking to explore off-the-beaten-path locales have been increasing.

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