Jan Sobotka

Jan Sobotka

Machine Learning Researcher & Engineer

MSc, EPFL (2026)

About me

I recently completed an MSc in computer science at EPFL, where my thesis studied how inductive reasoning develops during language model pre-training. I am now a research assistant with Prof. Ufuk Topcu at UT Austin.

My research focuses on reverse-engineering deep learning models: what internal mechanisms drive their behavior, how these emerge during training, and why they fail in unfamiliar settings. Currently, I study this in language models, especially how training data shapes what they learn and how they generalize. My goal is a predictive science of training that enables more reliable AI systems.


Interests
  • Language models
  • Learning dynamics
  • Training data and generalization
  • (Mechanistic) interpretability
  • AI safety and reliability
Education
  • Master's degree in Computer Science, 2024 - 2026

    Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)

  • Bachelor's degree in Informatics, Specialization in Artificial Intelligence, 2021 - 2024

    Czech Technical University in Prague

Recent Publications & Preprints

(2026). Latent Taxonomies: How Property Induction Develops in Language Model Pre-training. ArXiv (under review).

PDF DOI

(2026). Why Do LLMs Struggle in Strategic Play? Broken Links Between Observations, Beliefs, and Actions. ArXiv (under review).

PDF DOI

(2026). Do LLMs Strategically Reveal, Conceal, and Infer Information? A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis in The Chameleon Game. Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2026, Extended Abstract).

PDF DOI

(2025). MEIcoder: Decoding Visual Stimuli from Neural Activity by Leveraging Most Exciting Inputs. Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2025).

PDF OpenReview

(2025). Weak-to-Strong Generalization under Distribution Shifts. Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2025).

PDF OpenReview

(2025). Reverse-Engineering Memory in DreamerV3: From Sparse Representations to Functional Circuits. Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2025, Spotlight at Mechanistic Interpretability Workshop).

PDF OpenReview

(2024). Enhancing Fractional Gradient Descent with Learned Optimizers. ArXiv.

PDF DOI

(2024). Investigation into the Training Dynamics of Learned Optimizers. 16th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART 2024).

PDF DOI

(2024). Investigation into Training Dynamics of Learned Optimizers (Student Abstract). The 38th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-24).

PDF DOI