Lihao Sun

Microsoft
University of Chicago

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Hi there! I’m a Research Resident at Microsoft Social Computing Group. Previously, I graduated from the University of Chicago (2025) with a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. (Honors) in Cognitive Science.

I’m interested in understanding intelligence. My research sits at the intersection of LLMs and cognitive science, with a focus on mechanistic interpretability - to uncover, explain, and control interesting and surprising behaviors that emerge in AI systems. Ultimately, I hope this line of work helps us reflect more deeply on what it means to learn, think, and be human.

During my undergraduate years, I was fortunate to collaborate with Prof. Xuechunzi Bai, Dr. Andrew Lee, Prof. Chengzhi Mao, and Prof. Valentin Hofmann.

I’m also a competition math specialist, indie music enthusiast, magazine writer, and startup builder. You can learn more about my life in this tab. For my blogs, you can visit the blog tab.

Email | Google Scholar | Github | X | Bluesky

news

Apr 10, 2026 My reasoning trajectory paper was accepted to ACL 2026 Main. See you in San Diego!
Feb 24, 2026 Released EvoClaw, a soul and memory management framework for OpenClaw agents, now with 100+ stars on GitHub.
Jul 19, 2025 My LLM implicit bias paper was accepted to ACL 2025 Main. See you in Vienna!
Jun 10, 2025 I will be attending Y Combinator AI Startup School on Jun 16-17. See you in San Francisco!

publications

  1. traj-teaser.png
    ACL
    LLM Reasoning as Trajectories: Step-Specific Representation Geometry and Correctness Signals
    ACL Main, 2026
  2. aligned-but-blind-teaser.jpg
    ACL
    Aligned but Blind: Alignment Increases Implicit Bias by Reducing Awareness of Race
    ACL Main, 2025
  3. self-verif-teaser.png
    NeurIPS
    The Geometry of Self-Verification in a Task-Specific Reasoning Model
    NeurIPS Mech Interp Workshop, 2025