Kevin Maes

Entrepreneur & storyteller exploring Asia. My memoir #KingdomOfTrials reveals the life-changing challenges I faced. 👉

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

Your entire assumption is based on future models. We still have extremely useful models to work with, today. If you know what you are doing.

The main issue is that the frontier labs were trying to stay ahead of the competition (OpenAI vs Anthropic) by each time trying to launch the best models, first. Using hype to onboard and steal new users. Users that are much needed to foot the massively growing bills.

The downside, for the US as current market leader, is that these halts give the competition time to catch up. Hello China? Hello Europe? And it will shrink the user base on the long run for the US frontier labs. Users they are in dire need for to… Pay the bills.

And it’s actually very funny that the major KOL accounts not so long ago were screaming doom and gloom, that AI will wipe out all jobs. So what is it? Government slows down technology that could wipe out and disrupt jobs vs oh no now we are going to pop the bubble.

If you guys are all so smart as you like to make your precious followers believe, then the models we have today can still make you build awesome stuff. Stuff that you couldn’t even dream about 2 years ago. Adapt and overcome.

[Miles Deutscher @milesdeutscher]

When the news about GPT-5.6 broke, my stomach dropped.

We've officially hit a wall with AI, and this could very well be the pin that pops the bubble.

The entire global economy is riding on what happens next.

Nobody is connecting the dots - let me explain:

Right now, the entire economy is riding on one bet:

AI succeeds.

And almost nobody realises how exposed that leaves us.

In Q1 2026, AI capex accounted for ~75% of US GDP growth, and companies are expected to pour $800B+ into AI this year alone.

Strip out AI spending, and growth is effectively zero.

Here's where things gets dangerous:

The government just started gatekeeping AI.

Fable 5 was pulled, GPT-5.6's release has been delayed for weeks, and now the government wants to approve access to frontier models "customer by customer."

If the government keeps throttling AI, progress stalls (already happening).

If progress stalls, the spending stalls.

If the spending stalls, ~75% of GDP growth stalls with it.

The entire economy has become one giant leveraged bet on AI's success.

The irony about all of this is that AI worked so well and moved so fast that it became its own bottleneck.

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

@TheAmolAvasare So when? Why no communication?

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

As a European living in Asia, I agree that Europe needs to urgently step up their game if they want to compete on a world stage. The madness and the regulations are going to far. There is no doubt about that. And I left Europe 17 years ago already for those very same reasons. The problem I also have, I started following @levelsio because I had deep respect for the things he was / is building as a solopreneur. But his content has moved to, or at least what I get to see in my feed, non-stop Europe bashing. As a European himself. It’s slowly becoming annoying an unpleasant to watch every day.

[@levelsio @levelsio]

European airlines are even switching off AC on flights now to save the climate

At 35,000 ft the air outside is -50°C/-122°F though so no you're not saving anything by switching AC off

Completely delusional 😂

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

@hugolowell @WIRED The entire madness is that bad actors, will not be stopped because of the export ban. They find ways to do exactly what they want it to do on American soil.

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

@GavinNewsom @grok didn’t Gavin Newsom recently bought a new multi million USD mansion?

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

The bright side of what happened today… We won’t see these annoying posts about Fable 5 for a while…

[Min Choi @minchoi]

Ok Claude Fable 5 is insane.

People can't stop building.

10 wild examples.

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

@userprogramed @Polymarket The entire premise of Succession is that all characters are not likable.

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

@yarpegleg @Roach_BKK 2M and I’ll fix the cracked windows.

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

@Bart_DeWever @FranckenTheo even in Thailand they are looking at the Brussels situation with sorry eyes. Do we really want to let it come this far that Brussel and some other areas in Belgium are becoming world famous for being dangerous shitholes? When are you finally going to do something about it? I think the people in Belgium, well behaving immigrants included, deserve to get an answer.

[Sean Boonpracong @Rajprasong_News]

Too bad! Feel sorry for the native Belgians, was in #Brussels for an FTA, love the little hotel we stayed near the negotiation venue there!

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

Er gebeurt precies niets? Zit u en uw partij niet in de regering dan? Ik heb vandaag Conner hetzelfde horen zeggen over die bootcamps. Wat is dan het probleem eigenlijk nog? Dit wordt stilletjes aan, of is al lang, een nationale veiligheidskwestie. Of moeten we eerst wachten tot er nog wat onschuldige mensen sterven?

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

@Alexarmstrong That’s why she moved to Rome. Wasn’t it?

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

But unfortunately one cannot fully exist without the other. You cannot keep friction in place for foreigners to enter while having big ambitions in the field of AI, crypto, or any other digital business... Thailand does not have the knowledge nor can it obtain that knowledge on its own to compete on a global stage. They need to make it easier for young smart people to start building in Thailand without that endless red tape. Setting up a business in Thailand without big up front investments (which is how most internet startups start) is nearly impossible. It's way easier and faster to do so in HK or Singapore. You don't even have to be physically present there.

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

How long are European leaders going to accept this? Or FORCE this upon the people of Europe? You will NEVER see this in any big city in Asia. @EmmanuelMacron @vonderleyen Solve this or step down. You are all failing your people.

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

This is Paris tonight

🇫🇷

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

It’s not only hotels that do this. I was in a clothing store in Belgium last week. At checkout they ask everyone, “can I add 1 euro for a cancer charity”. Nobody in the line dares to say no. Because it would look bad for the next in line, so we think. But the next in line probably thinks the same as you do, that it’s a sleazy way of raising funds for any charity.

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

@Bangkokboy17 RIP Bada Bing

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

@FranckenTheo @Bart_DeWever why is this not happening? Did we even make an attempt already to open dialogue with Russia from the European side?

[Robert Fico 🇸🇰 @RobertFicoSVK]

STATEMENT ON THE DRONE INCIDENT IN ROMANIA

A few days ago, I stated that in the absence of dialogue between the European Union and the Russian Federation, any stray drone could lead to an escalation of tensions that we may not be able to manage.

In connection with the drone incident, I express my full solidarity with the Romanian government, call for restraint in making inflammatory statements, and once again urge the immediate opening of dialogue between the European Union and the Russian Federation.

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

@SecGenNATO @NicusorDanRO You keep repeating the same. But what will you do about it? How much further are they allowed to go?

[Kevin Maes @TheOnlyMaes]

@milesdeutscher How can you say they are “the king again” if you didn’t even take the time to work with it dude. You literally post this shit minutes after they announced it.