Zico KOLTER

Zico Kolter is a Professor of Computer Science and the head of the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University, where he has been a key figure for 12 years. Zico completed his Ph.D. in computer science at Stanford University in 2010, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT from 2010 to 2012. Throughout his career, he has made significant contributions to the field of machine learning, authoring numerous award-winning papers at prestigious conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, and AISTATS.

Zico's research includes developing the first methods for creating deep learning models with guaranteed robustness. He pioneered techniques for embedding hard constraints into AI models using classical optimization within neural network layers. More recently, in 2023, his team developed innovative methods for automatically assessing the safety of large language models (LLMs), demonstrating the potential to bypass existing model safeguards through automated optimization techniques. Alongside his academic pursuits, Zico has worked closely within the industry throughout his career, formerly as Chief Data Scientist at C3.ai, and currently as Chief Expert at Bosch and Chief Technical Advisor at Gray Swan, a startup specializing in AI safety and security.