Dan Chuparkoff

You need to be paying attention to Ohio tech. Here are some recent headlines... • Nationwide commits $1.5 billion to tech and AI transformation (h/t Jim Fowler) • Stargate Expands: OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announce five new AI data center sites, including Ohio • Cleveland Clinic and DASI Simulations partner on AI ‘Co-Pilot’ for heart procedures (h/t Teri Sirset and Sean McKibben) • Ohio startups can now apply for JumpStart Inc.’s Trailblazer Software Accelerator (h/t Lorne Novick, Nicki Hubbard) • Sonic Fire Tech raises $3.5M Seed Round to bring NASA-inspired infrasound fire defense to market • Inside ‘Innovate Toledo’: How the University of Toledo plans to power the region’s Next Economy (h/t Sharon Speyer) • Cincinnati-backed Kernel (YC S25) raises $22M for powering AI’s new “browser layer” (h/t Rafael Garcia, Catherine Jue) • The O.H.I.O. Fund invests in Dublin-based EASE Logistics to expand AI innovation (h/t Peter Coratola Jr., Ray Leach Jeffrey Stern) • Cleveland Clinic, Khosla Ventures join forces to accelerate health tech innovation • Honda invests $2.6 million to expand research at The Ohio State University (h/t Walter "Ted" Carter) • Akron’s Polymer Bet: First startups join Synthe6 Accelerator (h/t Jessica Sublett, J.D., LLM, Hans Dorfi) • Robots in Every Classroom: Cleveland students get hands-on with AI future • Dayton’s DEXA (Drone Express) raises $15 million Seed Round to take drone delivery mainstream (h/t Beth Flippo) • Ohio to anchor U.S. nuclear revival as Centrus Energy Corp. plans major expansion (h/t JP Nauseef, JobsOhio) • JobsOhio, Ohio Life Sciences Association launch $30 million biomanufacturing workforce initiative (h/t Eddie Pauline) • Cleveland’s Splash secures $70 million Series C, backed by The O.H.I.O. Fund (h/t Steven Muszynski) • Cleveland startup Beacon launches to pay you for referrals (h/t Rob Reznick) -- Link to each story in the comments. Follow OhioX, Ohio Tech News, and Ohio Tech Events for more tech news and events. 🚀🚀🚀 Want this type of news straight to your inbox? Join 8,503+ Ohio tech execs/pros by subscribing here: https://lnkd.in/eSSgK5ix

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🚨 Had a great conversation with MIT Technology Review about how Michigan is built to build! 🛠️ (link in the comments) We covered the bold bets Michigan is making to create a statewide innovation ecosystem, and what it really takes to break down the barriers between startups, academia, big companies, and government. 💡 One key idea: The role of state government in innovation needs to evolve. Government should have a seat at the table as a strategic, collaborative partner. (Key word: partner!) Not passively funding startups or picking winners. Instead, being an active ecosystem builder, driving unified, smart strategy, facilitating meaningful connections, and enabling collaboration, not controlling it. ⚙️ Some insights I think are especially worth sharing: 🤝 Trust is infrastructure. Economic development thrives when everyone - entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers - feels they're pulling in the same direction. Authentic collaboration is essential. 🧠 Place-based strategies matter. Real innovation happens in places that know exactly what they’re good at. For Michigan, that’s about merging our historic expertise in manufacturing ("atoms") with cutting-edge software, AI, and digital technologies ("bits"). Our universities, startups, and talent pools are world-class at software and AI. We want to enable the infusion of these strengths directly into our manufacturing base. 🏭 History matters too. Michigan was home to the original “Freedom’s Forge” during WWII, when we reshaped global manufacturing. We're tapping back into that legacy, reimagining it to lead America's next era of innovation. 🧬 Tailored solutions beat copying Silicon Valley every time. I hear a lot of "We want to be the Silicon Valley of XYZ." But our goal isn’t to copy-paste. That’s herd mentality, not strategy. We're building what's right for Michigan, rooted in our unique strengths. The short-term metrics look fantastic, but our ultimate goal is long-term economic transformation. We’re planting seeds today that will bear fruit measured in decades, not quarterly reports. If you’re working on hard tech, manufacturing, mobility, AI, climate, or related fields…let’s talk! Michigan is ready to build what's next. 🚀 For the builders out there, what'd I miss? How can states be better partners? Who does it REALLY great right now and why? Who sucks at it and why? Feel free to be blunt! #innovation #Michigan #startups #SiliconValley

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Was thrilled to host a recent OhioX webinar on Agentic AI in Production with leaders from Foundry for AI by Rackspace (FAIR™). here is a link to the webinar - https://lnkd.in/gcVGxwsF . My 3 biggest takeaways from our discussion: 1. The Infrastructure Reality Check Our panelists made it clear: agentic AI requires fundamentally different plumbing. We're moving from point-to-point APIs to protocols like Model Context Protocol (MCP) that let agents communicate across systems seamlessly. As one panelist noted, it's like giving an employee access to all the tools they need—but we must carefully orchestrate that access. 2. The "Policy as Code" Imperative What fascinated me most was hearing about organizations writing separate rollback agents for every production agent they deploy. The message was clear: policies that exist in documents must become executable code with built-in guardrails. We can't scale agentic systems without this foundation. 3. The Human Factor Surprise Perhaps the most eye-opening moment: our internal CTO revealed that human resistance was a bigger challenge than any technical hurdle. People hold onto familiar manual processes. Success requires intentional change management—not just technical deployment. One statistic that stopped me: 77% of AI leaders already have agentic AI in production vs. much lower adoption elsewhere. The leaders are pulling away fast. Thanks to Simon Bennett, Nirmal Ranganathan, and Brian Lichtle for sharing their authentic experiences. And to everyone who joined from across the globe (we had 4 continents represented)—your questions made this conversation richer. Thanks to Chris Berry for your partnership The future isn't about automating what we do—it's about reimagining what's possible.

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This is the auto-healing system inside VantageOS. Most platforms depend on people to notice when something breaks. This one is built to notice, understand, and respond on its own. Behind the interface is an internal agentic layer continuously monitoring system state, data integrity, workflow execution, and operational signals. When something drifts, degrades, or fails, it does not just raise a flag. It diagnoses the issue, traces dependencies, and initiates corrective action to restore alignment. Quietly. Continuously. Without waiting. Because in complex environments, small inconsistencies do not stay small. They cascade. Adam and I built this with a simple principle: a serious system should not just run, it should maintain itself. That means detecting anomalies early. Resolving issues before they compound. And keeping the platform stable, reliable, and aligned even as conditions change. This is what operational resilience looks like when it is built into the system itself. #VantageOS #AI #AgenticSystems #Automation #OperationalIntelligence #Resilience #Infrastructure #SystemsThinking https://lnkd.in/giTUvp3p

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Proud that Sierra has partnered with Cedar to build Kora, an AI voice agent purpose-built for patient billing. Catch Cedar's Sumayah Rahman and Sierra's Miranda Zhao at ViVE later this month to hear how they built Kora and what they've learned from real patient interactions https://lnkd.in/gh2et3ss

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Healthcare moves slowly because stability & regulation matter. In the State of #AI, we cover how AI forces teams to rethink workflows + innovation when change is no longer optional. Check out the full conversation with me, Elliott Fouts, Brandon Mathis, + Coston Perkins.🔗👇 https://lnkd.in/eCbZ6nC2

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Folsom Tech Week kicks off tomorrow, and if you're building in HealthTech, GovTech, AI, or Startups, this is where you need to be. Four days of expert-led panels, fireside chats, and curated networking bringing together the builders, founders, and decision-makers actually moving the industry forward. The tracks are designed for practitioners: • HealthTech – innovations reshaping patient care and delivery systems • GovTech – how technology is modernizing public sector infrastructure • AI – real deployments, not just demos • Startups – from pitch competitions to founder roundtables Whether you're looking to hire, get hired, find your next investment, or simply level up your understanding of where tech is heading, the conversations happening here will shape the next 12 months. March 3–6 | Folsom, California Tickets and full agenda at folsomtechweek.com #FolsomTechWeek #TechLeadership #Innovation #Networking

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The Chicago Sun-Times published hallucinated book titles generated by AI — and no human caught it before it hit print. Shocked… and not shocked when I read this article. Everyone’s talking about AI adoption. No one is talking about what actually stops adoption. In my opinion, buried inside the article was something more important than the fake book recs: “For AI to truly replace a human worker, it needs persistent memory, real reliability — and no hallucinations.” That’s it. That’s the adoption blocker. Not lack of interest. Not regulation. Not even compute. Accuracy. That’s where much of the industry is in the AI adoption curve: running fast and trusting too much. But if you’re reading this, I’m betting you want to build something better. Here’s what I’ve seen across AI-native companies and enterprise buyers: ✅ Everyone’s building with LLMs. ✅ Everyone’s excited. ❌ But when the app hallucinates, adoption dies in a procurement review or user test. Accuracy isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s the go/no-go line. 🗣️And the one thing founders miss? And it’s not enough to measure accuracy. The one takeaway you need to create AI products that return actual revenue is that accuracy needs to improve automatically, live, in production, without needing 3 engineers on call. That’s what we’re solving at Empromptu: ✅ Real-time hallucination control ✅ Use-case-adaptive accuracy evaluation ✅ A feedback loop that trains itself ✅ Zero code, zero ML team required Because you don’t build AI people trust by writing more papers. You do it through good AI ideas executed well. If you want your AI product to cross the adoption chasm. Start with accuracy. #AI #startups #EmpromptuAI #llm

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Co-working spaces are't new. Neither are tech incubators. But imagine taking a leap with some friends and opening a space like this back in 2013, right in the middle of the Detroit bankruptcy situation. Yet this is what Amanda Lewan and friends did. Their idea resulted in not one, but five communities, with Grand Rapids opening soon. I caught Amanda just as she was about to hop in her car and drive over to GR. This clip highlights what's changed since Bamboo Coworking started in 2013. Our longer chat details the millions in real estate assets that Bamboo manages. Full interview here: https://lnkd.in/gzDtaJVV #detroitrealestate #coworking #michigantech #tech #detroit #midwest #midwesttech

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Could your most effective AI strategy begin with your team members? Combining peer mentoring with generative AI accelerates learning, drives innovation, and enhances confidence in utilizing new technologies. Discover how a human-centric method can transform early adopters into true innovators in this article from Vistage Worldwide, Inc.

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The real innovation here isn't the beamforming—it's treating hearing as a spatial AI problem, not just an audio processing one. What Meta's Conversation Focus feature does is clinically interesting: it uses real-time spatial mapping to isolate a single speaker's voice in chaotic acoustic environments. From an AI perspective, this requires simultaneously solving speaker localization, voice isolation, and noise suppression at edge speeds. That's a meaningful step beyond traditional hearing aids, which typically just amplify across frequency bands. The practical implications matter. Hearing loss affects nearly 1.5 billion people globally, and most avoid hearing aids due to stigma or poor performance in real-world noise. Embedding this capability into consumer glasses normalizes the technology while solving the actual problem people face—understanding one person in a crowded room, not just hearing louder. What interests me more is the precedent: this shows how spatial AI sensors create new possibilities for health-adjacent features that don't require medical approval but deliver genuine clinical benefit. It's a pattern we'll see repeated across wearables. The question isn't whether this works. It's whether consumer tech companies will continue outpacing traditional medical device makers in solving real-world accessibility problems. https://lnkd.in/eYdpgSTd #DigitalHealth #MedicalAI #RegulatoryAI #BreastCancer

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