Technical AI Safety & AGI Strategy
Curriculum Vitae
Girish Gupta
San Francisco-based AI researcher and writer combining training in theoretical physics, hands-on Silicon Valley AI and software engineering leadership, and a decade as an investigative reporter covering global crises from Venezuela to Iraq.
Experience
Feb 2026 –
Independent Researcher · Technical AI Safety Research Fellow, Cambridge ERA
- Contributed to EleutherAI's open-source data-attribution library (volunteering with interpretability lead Lucia Quirke), worked on persona geometry alongside former Cambridge ERA colleagues, and mentored researchers through Algoverse.
- At Cambridge ERA, researched the interpretability of machine unlearning — why existing safety interventions are brittle under tampering. Mentored by Lucia Quirke (EleutherAI) and Kyle O'Brien (Geodesic Research).
- Built an end-to-end codebase with custom pipelines for training models across a dozen unlearning algorithms; engineered a dynamic multi-GPU dispatch system to parallelise hyperparameter sweeps; developed mechanistic experiments.
- Course Facilitator for BlueDot Impact's Technical AI Safety course. Published articles about AI at Beyond the Parrot.
Apr 2020 – Nov 2025
- Founded as well as led engineering and AI development across multiple venture-backed startups.
- At Tellen, led technology for a platform serving audit, accounting and financial services. Architected and shipped a full-stack, SOC 2–compliant system deployed into client-owned cloud environments and connected to private AI endpoints.
- At Deepnews, trained and deployed recurrent-, convolutional- and transformer-based models to evaluate news articles.
Mar – Oct 2021
Author, Always Go
- A celebration and critique of the news industry. Finalist, 2024 San Francisco Writers' Conference.
May 2019 – May 2020
Head of Data Science, IDFC Institute (now Artha Global)
- Created a data-science unit at the Rockefeller-, Gates- and Ford-funded public-policy non-profit.
- Published research, built platforms, created interactives, and advised the government on urban mobility, open-source mapping (GIS), privacy/data governance, and COVID-19.
Dec 2014 – Apr 2020
Creator, Venezuela Econ · Founder & CEO, Data Drum
- Founded and led a startup providing automated, accessible economic data for public use — beginning with the leading data platform on one of the world's most opaque countries.
Jun 2015 – May 2018
Senior Correspondent, Reuters
- Produced major investigations: that the results of a national Venezuelan election were fabricated; secrets about the country's military, including surface-to-air missile inventories and lists of soldiers arrested for treason and rebellion; that the Chief Justice was arrested on suspicion of murder; and multi-billion-dollar corruption at Venezuela's state oil company.
- Produced text, photos and TV on Venezuela's hyperinflation, social decay, food riots and protests.
- Based in Venezuela; reported also in Iraq, Afghanistan, the United States, Colombia and Ecuador.
- Wrote software to automate story-writing, data-gathering and admin, and used OSINT techniques.
- Coordinated on-the-ground and digital security in an extremely hostile environment.
Oct 2010 – May 2015
Freelance Foreign Correspondent
- Reuters, New Yorker, New York Times, TIME, Financial Times, NPR, BBC … (some 50 outlets).
- Produced text, photos, video and radio in Venezuela, as well as Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Guyana, Jordan, Lebanon, Peru and Mexico.
- Covered the cancer, election and death of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, the messy transition to Nicolás Maduro's rule and the humanitarian crisis that followed, including daily violent unrest.
- Investigated diamond smuggling from illegal jungle mines in the Amazon, a Colombian paramilitary massacre, and the killing of wildcat gold miners there.
Sep 2007 – Jul 2008
Officer Cadet, Officers' Training Corps, British Army
- Training in first aid, weapon handling, drill, leadership, fieldcraft and military tactics.
May 2000 – Nov 2001
Creator, Music Goes On
- Built a music website listed by MTV as one of the web's top 20 sources.
Education
May 2024 – Jul 2026
Artificial Intelligence, Stanford University
- Machine Learning (XCS229), Natural Language Processing (XCS224N), Natural Language Understanding (XCS224U), Reinforcement Learning (XCS234).
Sep 2022 – Jun 2023
Theoretical Physics, Open University
- The Relativistic Universe (S383): General Relativity and Cosmology.
Sep 2006 – Jun 2010
Physics (Master's), University of Manchester
- Abstract to Master's thesis — an atrial fibrillation simulation — published in Proceedings of The Physiological Society. Bachelor's thesis on negative index of refraction. Essay on the physics of music.
Sep 2005 – Jun 2006
Natural Sciences, King's, Cambridge University
Mathematics · Physics · Chemistry · Geology
Papers
Lucia Quirke, Louis Jaburi, David Johnston, William Z. Li, Gonçalo Paulo, Guillaume Martres, Girish Gupta, Stella Biderman, Nora Belrose
arXiv · 2026
Jacob Davies, Rhea E. Karty, Girish Gupta, Nathaniel Mitrani Hadida, David Williams-King, Andrew Draganov
ICML 2026 · Workshop on Mechanistic Interpretability
Muhammad Khan, Shlok Channawar, Akshaj Gurugubelli, Girish Gupta, Aditya Shah
ICML 2026 · Workshop on Mechanistic Interpretability
Courses & training
Generative AI with Large Language Models
Introduction to Computer Science
Deep Learning Specialization
Also: multiple Hostile Environment Training and First Aid courses; the British Army's Military Training Qualification 1; open-source investigation at Berkeley's Human Rights Center; development psychology; music theory; and fellowships at On Deck.
Side projects
Beyond the Parrot Build an LLM LLM ProbeBerkeley Human Rights Center — AI investigative toolkitPhoto book on Venezuela (2023–25)Math for Journalists (iOS)According to DocumentsReadwise2RoamGlobalOTP