Thorsten Meyer is a futurist, post-labor economist, author, and publisher — and, unusually for someone who writes about artificial intelligence, a hands-on builder working at the frontier of it. Most commentators do one or the other: they analyze where AI is taking work and the economy, or they ship products with it. Thorsten does both, and each side sharpens the other. The analysis is grounded in what he has actually built; the building is steered by where he believes the economy is heading.

Based in Iffeldorf, in the lake country south of Munich, he is the founder and publisher of the StrongMocha News Group, established in 2007, and the voice behind Thorsten Meyer AI, where he separates signal from hype for business leaders, policymakers, and everyday readers trying to make sense of a world being reshaped by automation. His work blends sharp economic analysis with accessible storytelling — and, increasingly, with working software that demonstrates the very shifts he writes about.

Three vantage points, one throughline

Thorsten approaches the same question — what happens to work, wealth, and society as machines get capable — from three angles at once.

The publisher. What began in 2007 as a niche-media venture near Munich has grown into a digital network of more than 400 specialized brands and titles, now powered end to end by an in-house AI content engine. It is, in effect, a live experiment in what AI-assisted media operations look like at scale — and a working answer to questions most publishers are only beginning to ask.

The economist and futurist. Through Thorsten Meyer AI, he writes the kind of analysis that refuses easy answers — from the multi-part Post-Labor Transition Atlas, which maps how different jurisdictions are responding to AI-driven labor displacement across income, capital, skills, and institutions, to the Reality Check essays that pull frontier-AI news back down to what it means for real businesses and real people.

The builder. Thorsten builds the way he writes about the future: directly, at the edge, and in public. He develops a portfolio of software using agentic AI development, with the strongest models doing architecture and review while execution is delegated and gated by automated tests — an operating model he has road-tested across dozens of projects at once and documents in his ongoing Built in Public series. An OpenAI 10 Billion Token Award recipient, he runs much of his inference locally on an Apple-silicon cluster, reflecting a conviction that runs through everything he makes: capability should be powerful, but also local, sovereign, and resilient.

What Thorsten builds

The portfolio spans the full range of where AI now creates value: tools that run publishing and business operations, intelligence and analytics platforms, a defense-relevant evaluation line, and consumer applications and original games. The throughline is discipline over spectacle — deterministic, well-tested cores; honest scoring; local-first, privacy-respecting design — so the work holds up after the demo ends. Several of these systems have gone from an empty repository to a shipped product in days, built and reviewed by AI under close human direction. Content across the Thorsten Meyer AI network is produced with AI assistance under his editorial oversight — a practice he treats as a subject to study openly, not a secret to keep.

Apps and platforms Thorsten has built

Beyond the publishing network itself, Thorsten designs and ships a broad portfolio of software — most of it built with agentic AI under his direction. A selection:

Publishing and media operations

  • DojoClaw — the in-house AI content engine that runs the StrongMocha network end to end.
  • Grimfaste — an operations platform and command center for managing a large WordPress publishing fleet.
  • ChannelHelm — a video-to-publishing orchestration layer that turns long-form video into published content.
  • Stenvrik — a client-side news-intelligence “analyst desk” that monitors hundreds of live sources.
  • RoundupForge — a product-intelligence tool that tracks prices and changes across retail catalogs.

Software and SaaS products

  • Thrymvault — a self-hosted, Notion-style workspace with pages, databases, and shareable portals.
  • Briefro — a local-first generator for branded decks, documents, and proposals, grounded in a company’s own data.
  • Cutrova — a video and audio editor that lets you cut footage by editing its transcript.
  • Delvasta — a conversion and funnel platform with payments, A/B testing, and AI optimization.
  • Threlmark — an operator and project-intelligence tool with a built-in agent (MCP) interface.
  • Readiness — an AI-readiness assessment that benchmarks an organization against its peers.
  • IdeaClyst — an open, local-first founder instrument that sits Claude and Codex at the same table to argue a rough idea into a buildable product plan.
  • IdeaNavigator AI — a public research platform that publishes one complete, research-grounded business idea every day, each with its buyer, evidence, MVP, and validation path.

Intelligence, defense, and evaluation

  • VigilSAR — a defense-relevant geospatial- and radar-intelligence platform (developed under its own brand).
  • VigilSAR Defense LLM Benchmark — a public, procurement-grade evaluation of frontier models on defense-relevant tasks.
  • Forecasting research — experimental, paper-only systems for multi-asset and prediction-market forecasting.

Consumer apps, games, and spatial computing

  • AmenGate — a privacy-first iOS prayer app.
  • RHEO — a real-time fluid-simulation lab shipped to the web, Apple Vision Pro, and Steam from a single shared core.
  • Original games — a deterministic roguelite, a rhythm-platformer, a survival-defense title, and a tower defense, each built with all-original art and audio.

Open source

  • QAtrial — an open platform for regulated QA and compliance.
  • Outcome-First Decisions — an open decision-making framework and toolkit.
  • Additional tools and experiments are published at github.com/MeyerThorsten.

Many of these are documented as they are built, in his ongoing Built in Public series.

Topics Thorsten explores

  • Post-labor economics — how productivity, value creation, and the social contract transform in an era of declining traditional employment, and what income floors, capital ownership, and institutions can do about it.
  • AI and automation — separating hype from reality on large language models, agents, and robotics, with a practitioner’s eye for what actually works in production.
  • Sovereignty and resilience — local-first AI, model portability, and why access to a frontier capability is now a supply-chain and continuity question, not just a price.
  • Culture and communication — bridging human needs with digital realities, from parenting in the smartphone era to communication and empathy at work.

Professional background

Before AI became his subject and his medium, Thorsten spent more than two decades in global information and communication technology as a product leader known for delivering results. He guided multinational corporations through successful product launches, managed portfolios exceeding €100 million, and orchestrated cross-cultural market expansions across regions and continents.

That experience shapes how he builds today:

  • Global product strategy and P&L — leading portfolios from inception to end-of-life.
  • Cross-cultural expansion — using deep cultural intelligence to enter new markets effectively.
  • Lifecycle leadership — navigating ideation, development, go-to-market, and retirement.
  • Revenue growth and margin optimization — driving profitable expansion across diverse sectors.
  • Applied AI — practical work with generative models, agentic development, predictive analytics, cloud SaaS, and user experience.

Books by Thorsten Meyer

The Global Mindset Series

  • Navigating the AI Revolution
  • Cultural Intelligence
  • The AI Bifurcation

Standalone works

  • The Creative Spark
  • Positive Thinking Day
  • Harmonies and Horizons

Written as Claude Benson

  • How to Talk So Your Partner Will Listen
  • How to Talk So Your Teenager Will Listen
  • How to Talk So Your Boss Will Listen
  • How to Talk So Your Kids Will Listen
  • Byte-Sized Parenting (Digital Parenting #1)
  • How to Talk to Difficult Parents
  • Survival Guide for New Dads
  • Ctrl+Parent
  • Love and Connection
  • Survive the Unpredictable

Mission and vision

Thorsten’s mission is to demystify complex, technology-driven change and hand people something they can act on. Whether the subject is universal basic income, the economics of automation, or the practical reality of building with frontier models, the goal is the same: replace anxiety and hype with clarity, so readers and leaders can shape what comes next on purpose rather than by default.

Connect with Thorsten

“The future isn’t something that happens to us — it’s something we write, one decision at a time.” — Thorsten Meyer