The creator of a poem is the subject of it too.
Note: This page is about who I am as a person. It serves as an experiment in distal connectivity — I may have sent it to you to introduce myself. If you end up reading it and believe that we share interests and/or values, do reach out!
Formal Background
I’m a Research Scientist at the UK AI Security Institute (AISI). In 2021, I finished an undergrad in Computer Science from BITS Pilani, and I’ve been doing AI research since. I’ve worked at Microsoft Research and did a lot of independent research in AI safety/alignment as a MATS scholar. Prior to this, I was an Associate Scientist at Wadhwani AI, a non-profit working on AI for Social Good. I plan to continue doing research and possibly explore teaching and entrepreneurship along the way. For more on my research, please see my research statement.
Reading & Writing
I spent roughly 20% of my childhood reading books. I have read around a thousand books on all sorts of random things (I maintain a partial list here), and continue to read whenever I get the time (which is much lesser nowadays 😔).
As I grew, this interest morphed into an almost equally strong interest in writing. I write a lot of non-peer-reviewed stuff, including philosophy, non-fiction sequences, fiction novels, drama scripts, and poetry. To check out some of them, click here!
Teaching & Learning
I love teaching and learning, which is probably one of the reasons I ended up working on machine learning research. Since I’m not currently in a teaching role, I take up any chances I get in whatever capacity. Some of them have been TAing for university courses, offering non-credit courses myself, doing guest lecutures/talks, etc.
The Beauty of Math
I have been fascinated by the beauty of math (and relatedly a lot of science and meta-stuff) ever since I was two (although I’d assume things were way more abstruse back then). I spent most of my schooling doing math and science olympiad problems and I’m always interested in learning more.
I would have loved to spend my career communicating the beauty of math and science if only there weren’t a lot of amazing people doing that already!
Games and Sports
Sports is an important part of my life. I grew up spending hours watching and playing them with my family and friends. I am decently good for a casual, non-competitive player of the following sports: cricket, tennis, badminton, table tennis, basketball, volleyball, snooker, and chess; and I’m currently picking up swimming, frisbee, football, golf, and squash.
Also, I absolutely love board games. Think Zendo, Catan, Chess, many different strategy-based card games, Blood on the Clocktower, etc. I don’t like UNO.
If we are in the same city, I’d love to join for sports or games!
Self-reference
I’m very interested in objects of self-reference. I have found the existence of self-reference in several domains to be deeply moving. Some of these domains are science, math, programming, AI, life, learning, and language. I love coversations about the abstract and the isomorphic, and I have annoyed some people to no end with this obsession. Sorry!
Things I care about
- I am lacto-vegetarian (and vegan for parts of the year). I follow Jainism, a way of life that promotes peaceful interdependence among all life forms.
- I don’t enjoy risky trade-offs for the adrenaline/dopamine. Some examples could be high-speed driving, gambling, and doing drugs. But I’m down to climb trees and fall!
- I really value good education. The older we get our education, the easier it becomes to compute the value of education. But I believe that good schooling is much more valuable and can in fact obviate the need of university. I’ll write more about this soon.
- Relatedly, I find children to be fascinatingly curious. I’m happy to spend hours playing with kids and teaching them via head-fakes.
Things I suck at
I have in the past failed at the following things:
- Art: I have for the most part not been able to appreciate the beauty of art, especially modern art.
- Dance: My body does not automatically move to rhythm/music. Standing awkwardly feels the most natural to me.
- Music: I have tried to play the piano and the guitar and the flute and sing and have failed each time. I like listening to songs but find myself focusing mostly on the lyrics. I want to get better at it. Update: I’ve started practicing some music (both singing and playing), and I’m hopeful it’ll be better this time!
This is to say that if someone can help me appreciate and learn these, I’d be grateful.
Cooking
I love cooking. I’m happy to cook something (vegetarian) for and with people. But I have a liking for not making the same thing twice, so expect some kind of experiment every time.
Here are some things I both made and took a picture of:
Location
I travel a lot for work. Some places where I plan to be for extended (>1 month) stays are Kota and Bengaluru in India, Berkeley in the US, and London in the UK. If you are around these places and would like to meet up, let me know! Update: I’ve moved to London for a full-time job now!
Social Life
I’m pretty reserved when in large groups. I don’t prefer parties but really like 1-1 conversations. I’m not active on any social media and this website is usually my only digital interface. If you like to imagine people with faces, here are some pictures that some good people were somehow able to take:
Subscribe
If you like what I write, please subscribe. You can select the areas (such as research or poetry) that you want to specifically get emails for:
Contact
Feel free to roam around here and check out the stuff I write. If you find someting interesting and worth discussing, feel free to write me an email. I’d be very happy to meet more nice people to work with, talk with, and play sports with!