Karthik Viswanathan

I recently completed my PhD at the University of Amsterdam in the Institute of Physics on geometric and statistical physics-based methods for interpretability of large language models. Prior to this, I was working on analyzing the large-scale structure of the universe using topological data analysis.

My interdisciplinary journey began with competitive programming, progressed through developing machine learning models as a surveillance analyst at Goldman Sachs, and continued with my master’s in theoretical physics. This cross-domain experience has enabled me to transition smoothly across disciplines and contribute to both practical implementations and theoretical research.

I’m currently seeking research roles in AI interpretability and safety. If you feel my background would be a good fit, please feel free to email me.

news

Jan 06, 2026	I will be participating in MATS 9.0 (ML Alignment & Theory Scholars Program) in Berkeley. I will be working with Adam Shai and Paul Riechers (Simplex AI Safety) on interpreting Chain of Thought in Toy Models using Computational Mechanics.
Jul 17, 2025	I’m attending ICML 2025, where I’ll be presenting some of my recent work on interpretability in large language models: Conference: Persistent Topological Features in Large Language Models Workshop on High-Dimensional Learning Dynamics: Probing Geometry of Next Token Prediction Using Cumulant Expansion of the Softmax Entropy
Jul 10, 2025	I’m participating in MARS 3.0 (Mentorship for Alignment Research Students), a research program run by the Cambridge AI Safety Hub. As part of this program, I will be working alongside a group of talented researchers on problems related to Chain-of-Thought reasoning in AI systems.
May 27, 2025	Workshop Announcement: Interpretability in LLMs using Geometric and Statistical Methods I am organizing a workshop taking place on May 27-28 where we will explore recent developments in interpretability for large language models (LLMs) using geometric and statistical methods. For further details, check out the workshop page.