Utah Tech Week: AI + Manufacturing Meetup — Resources & Recap

Co-hosted by Twintivo and Parakeet Risk as part of Utah Tech Week 2026. This post has the full recording, slide deck, and every resource from the crash course.

Watch the Full Crash Course

Understanding Large Language Models

If you're in manufacturing and keep hearing about LLMs but haven't gone deep yet, start here.

• Large Language Models Explained Briefly — A quick primer on what LLMs actually are and why they matter beyond chatbots.

• Deep Dive into LLMs like ChatGPT — A former OpenAI member breaks down how tokens work and what's actually happening under the hood. This is the one that made it click for us.

AI in the Factory — Who's Actually Doing It

These aren't hypotheticals. These are companies deploying AI on production lines right now.

• Mercedes-Benz: AI and Humanoid Robots on the Production Line — Mercedes is integrating AI and humanoid robots to accelerate their production network at their Berlin digital factory campus.

• Siemens AI Agents for Industrial Automation — Siemens is rolling out AI agents purpose-built for industrial automation. This is the direction the entire industry is heading.

• Caterpillar Voice AI Assistant — Caterpillar built a voice AI assistant for their operations. Worth watching to see how voice interfaces are entering heavy industry.

The Tech Stack Behind It

For the more technical crowd — the tools and models powering this shift.

• Model Context Protocol (GitHub) — An open protocol for connecting AI models to external tools and data sources. We're watching this one closely.

• Kimmi K2.5 — A new model release worth tracking as the LLM landscape continues to evolve.

• Nvidia Personaplex — First Open Speech-to-Speech Model — Nvidia's open speech-to-speech model. On par with Nvidia's leading speech-to-speech model. If manufacturers own the hardware already, this model runs free.

• Moshi by Kyutai Labs — Second Open Speech-to-Speech Model — Another open-source speech-to-speech entry. Competition here means faster progress for everyone.

Industry Trends

The bigger picture — where the money and the momentum are going.

• More Perfect by Christian Keil — A report on how technology shaped and will reshape the American Union. Essential context for understanding the reindustrialization wave.

• 36% of All Startup Funding Is Going to Hardtech (LinkedIn) — Carta data showing that over a third of all platform funding went to hardtech startups. The money is following the factories.

• OpenAI vs New York Times Lawsuit — The legal battle that could reshape how AI training data works. If you're building with AI, this matters.

The Modern Hardware Toolchain

One map worth bookmarking — a comprehensive landscape of the tools hardware teams use to design, build, and ship physical systems today. Compiled by the team at Hardware FYI.

Why This Matters

Every one of these developments points in the same direction: AI isn't coming to manufacturing — it's already here.