Lihao Sun

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, at two levels:
 (1) Models as the unit. Uncovering, measuring, and shaping how models behave toward humans and other models;
 (2) Model internals as the unit. Mechanistic interpretability, to explain and control the representations and circuits behind model behavior and capabilities.
Ultimately, I hope these lines of work help 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.