The most famous name in the world might belong to someone who doesn’t exist. A new study by Cornell University has shown that AI models are obsessed with generating characters with the name Elias, especially “Elias Thorne”. As far as placeholder names go, it might be curtains for John and Jane Doe.
Scroll down to read about Pride, data centers, and the Maldives ratio.
Stats to power your week
🚪With Keir Starmer on his way out of 10 Downing Street, the bigger story may be the British public’s wider loss of faith in politics. 7 in 10 Brits say they’re hesitant to believe any politician - regardless of party, candidate, or campaign promise. Whoever becomes Larry the Cat’s new boss (or employee?) has a challenge on their hands to win back public trust. GWI Pulse
🌈The World Cup is taking most of the headlines, but it is of course also Pride month. Pride is one of the most visible moments in the LGBTQ+ calendar, but where exactly does it rank among the community? Around 40% of LGBTQ+ consumers say they celebrate Pride - a minority celebration, but one that’s roughly level with Valentine’s Day at 41%. GWI Moments
🍺Talk of the Scots drinking Boston dry got us wondering: which parts of the UK are the biggest drinkers? Northern Scotland does in fact take the crown with 30.4% drinking alcohol regularly, just ahead of Swansea at 29.7%, while Hull sits intriguingly near the bottom of the list at “just” 14%. GWI Core
⚡A new paper might suggest data centres can actually cause electricity bills to fall, but they still have a trust problem. 41% disagree that they bring more benefits than drawbacks to the local community, leaving them with a net support score of -10. GWI Pulse
Meet the audience: Bluesky users
Without GWI data
With GWI data
Much like working out the vibe at a party, it takes time to understand the culture of a new social media platform.
The stereotype paints Bluesky users as uber-progressive, bookish, and indie-coded. That’s not completely wrong: the audience does over-index for creative and cultural interests. But GWI’s data shows a fuller picture. Bluesky users are more male-skewing than the stereotype suggests, and their tech interests are just as defining as their artistic ones.
They over-index for computers and coding, gadgets, gaming, and fantasy sports. So this isn’t just a platform for bookworms in plant-filled apartments. The real Bluesky user is more likely to be a digitally fluent, full-time working adult: culturally aware, creative-adjacent, and more professionally settled than the cliché implies.
Chart of the week
Want to visit the Maldives? You and more than 100 million others. That’s how many people worldwide have some level of interest in visiting the archipelago - a striking figure for a country with only around half a million permanent residents.
The Maldives is part of a small group of destinations where interested tourists outnumber residents by more than 100 to 1. All of them are islands or island groups, where demand can quickly exceed local capacity.
Not all of that interest converts into actual trips; annual tourist arrivals in the Maldives are closer to 2 million. But it still highlights the challenge facing some of the world’s most desirable destinations, particularly across the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean: how to anticipate tourism pressure before it arrives, and how to manage demand so they can still be enjoyed by the people who actually live there.
More from GWI
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