Yitao Xu 徐奕涛

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mail: yxu879 AT gatech DOT edu

addr: 225 North Avenue NW, Atlanta, GA, 30332

Hello! I am Yitao Xu, an incoming PhD student in Computer Science at George Mason University, advised by Prof. Ziyu Yao. Before joining GMU, I studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech and received my bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Liverpool.

My research focuses on mechanistic interpretability, explainable AI, trustworthy large language models, and AI safety. I am especially interested in understanding the internal mechanisms of language models, evaluating whether their reasoning processes are faithful, and building AI systems that are more transparent and reliable.

Outside of research, I enjoy photography and road cycling.

Education

George Mason University
Incoming Ph.D. Student in Computer Science
Fairfax, VA, USA | Fall 2026 -
Georgia Institute of Technology
M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Atlanta, GA, USA | 2024 - 2026
University of Liverpool
B.Sc. in Computer Science
(Joint Programme) | 2020 - 2024
Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
B.Sc. in Computer Science
Suzhou, China | 2020 - 2024
News

04/2026 My first leading project was accepted to ACL 26' as a co-first author.

07/2024 Graduated in Information and Computing Science from the University of Liverpool and Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, and said goodbye to Suzhou after four unforgettable years.

Selected Publications

  1. ACL 26'
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    The Illusion of Specialization: Unveiling the Domain-Invariant "Standing Committee" in Mixture-of-Experts Models
    Yan Wang*, Yitao Xu*, Nanhan Shen*, Jinyan Su, Jimin Huang, Zining Zhu
    Accepted to ACL 26', 2026
    * indicates equal contribution.