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Stephanie Stranko

Founder & CEO, Ikwe.ai

I am building the independent standard for how AI behaves with people in their hardest moments. This is where I write, share the work, and connect.

About

Why I am building this.

I am the Founder and CEO of Ikwe.ai, where we build the EQ Safety Benchmark. It is the first independent, third-party standard for how AI responds to people in emotional distress. Not whether a model is toxic or can be jailbroken. Whether the person on the other side is better or worse after the conversation.

I started Ikwe because the gap was clear and no one owned it. AI is talking to vulnerable people at scale, and the systems that grade it measure almost everything except the human outcome. So I spent eighteen months building the research and the method to measure that directly, the way a clinician would, and turned it into a standard that buyers, insurers, and regulators can actually use. The method is patent pending. The company is Visible Healing Inc., based in Des Moines, Iowa, and we are part of the G2M accelerator.

I write to think in public. The essays are about the things I keep running into as a founder building for a rule that does not exist yet: the difference between sounding safe and being safe, why regulation is the missing layer, and what it actually takes to build something honest under pressure. If you want the short version of the work, start with the writing below.

Role
Founder & CEO
Company
Ikwe.ai · Visible Healing Inc.
Based in
Des Moines, Iowa
Focus
Behavioral AI safety, the EQ Safety Benchmark
Press & bio

Download a bio.

Short and long bios for press, panels, and intros. For confidential materials like the investor sheet or pitch, use the request page.

Writing

Recent essays.

All writing on Medium

Find me
Contact

Get in touch.

For interviews, panels, partnerships, or just to say hello. I read everything that comes through.

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Or email directly: stephanie@ikwe.ai