--- title: "J. Zico Kolter — author profile and papers" description: "J. Zico Kolter, Carnegie Mellon University: 3 papers on Elamur Research (2019–2024), h-index 52 — affiliations, topics, co-authors and who cites them in…" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/j-zico-kolter/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/j-zico-kolter/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [authors](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/) / J. Zico Kolter # J. Zico Kolter J. Zico Kolter works on machine learning, and their papers here span three topics: [Language models & pretraining](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/language-models/), [Vision & language](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/multimodal/), and [Bias, fairness & safety](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/bias-fairness-safety/). A recurring thread is how neural sequence models behave under demanding conditions. One such condition is input streams from different senses that do not line up in time. Others are deliberate attempts to make a safety-tuned chatbot misbehave, and requests that a trained model drop specific knowledge. The methods include new attention architectures, gradient-guided search over tokens, and carefully controlled benchmarks. The most cited of these works is the 2019 [Multimodal Transformer for Unaligned Multimodal Language Sequences](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/tsai-2019-multimodal-transformer-unaligned-multimodal-language/). It extends the Transformer to handle text, facial and vocal signals recorded at different rates. Rather than forcing these signals onto word boundaries, it uses directional crossmodal attention between each pair of modalities. Next comes the 2023 paper [Universal and Transferable Adversarial Attacks on Aligned Language Models](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/zou-2023-universal-transferable-adversarial-attacks-aligned/). It introduced Greedy Coordinate Gradient, an automated method that learns a short suffix to append to a harmful request. The suffix pushes a safety-trained model to begin its reply in agreement, after which it tends to comply. The newest work here turns to privacy and forgetting in large language models. [TOFU: A Task of Fictitious Unlearning for LLMs](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/maini-2024-tofu-task-fictitious-unlearning-llms/) appeared in 2024. It builds a benchmark from invented biographies of 200 authors who do not exist, so the only source of the knowledge to be erased is known exactly. Models are fine-tuned on these profiles and then asked to forget part of them while retaining the rest. Together with the adversarial-suffix study, it moves the work from multimodal modelling toward the safety and reliability of language models. Kolter is currently at [Carnegie Mellon University](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/carnegie-mellon-university/) in Pittsburgh. Earlier bylines include [Stanford University](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/stanford-university/) and the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/massachusetts-institute-of-technology/), and from 2019 onward also [Robert Bosch](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/companies/robert-bosch/) in the United States. Co-authors on the papers here include [Yao-Hung Hubert Tsai](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/yao-hung-hubert-tsai/), [Ruslan Salakhutdinov](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ruslan-salakhutdinov/), [Nicholas Carlini](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/nicholas-carlini/), and [Zachary C. Lipton](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/zachary-c-lipton/). J. Zico Kolter has 3 papers in our library, in 2019–2024, most of them on [Language models & pretraining](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/language-models/), [Bias, fairness & safety](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/bias-fairness-safety/), [Vision & language](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/multimodal/); often with [Andy Zou](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/andy-zou/), [Avi Schwarzschild](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/avi-schwarzschild/), [Louis-Philippe Morency](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/louis-philippe-morency/). 3 papers in our library · 2019–2024 current affiliation [Carnegie Mellon University](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/carnegie-mellon-university/), Pittsburgh, United States [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/A5075035644) · [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8106-5759) · [**h-index 52**](https://openalex.org/authors/A5075035644) · [318 works](https://openalex.org/works?filter=author.id:A5075035644) · [18 912 citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=author.id:A5075035644&sort=cited_by_count:desc) OpenAlex, 2026-10-14 [3 works in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/j-zico-kolter/#papers) · [1 545 citations in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/j-zico-kolter/cited-by/) · 5 more works in our library · [⭐ Paper Star rank #783](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/paper-stars/page/8/#star-783) The profile is the library's match of the name; two people with one name are not always told apart. Elsewhere: [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=search_authors&mauthors=J.+Zico+Kolter) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/search?q=J.+Zico+Kolter) · [dblp](https://dblp.org/search?q=J.+Zico+Kolter) · [ACL Anthology](https://aclanthology.org/search/?q=J.+Zico+Kolter) ## Affiliations - [Carnegie Mellon University](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/carnegie-mellon-university/) · Pittsburgh, United States —current · 2013–2026 on 174 papers - [Robert Bosch (United States)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/companies/robert-bosch/) · Farmington Hills, United States —2019–2025 on 34 papers - [Robert Bosch (India)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/companies/robert-bosch-india/) · Bengaluru, India —2019–2025 on 23 papers - [Robert Bosch (Germany)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/companies/robert-bosch-germany/) · Stuttgart, Germany —2019–2025 on 3 papers - [Robert Bosch (Taiwan)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/companies/robert-bosch-taiwan/) · Taipei, Taiwan —2019–2024 on 18 papers - [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/massachusetts-institute-of-technology/) · Cambridge, United States —2010–2018 on 8 papers - [MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/labs/mit-computer-science-and-artificial-intelligence-laboratory/) · Cambridge, United States —2011–2012 on 2 papers - [Stanford University](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/stanford-university/) · Stanford, United States —2007–2011 on 12 papers - [Georgetown University](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/georgetown-university/) · Washington, United States —2004–2005 on 3 papers From the bylines of their papers (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14), ORCID and Wikidata; institutions on papers are matched by machine. 4 more institutions on single bylines are not listed. ## Topics [Language models & pretraining 2](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/language-models/) · [Bias, fairness & safety 1](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/bias-fairness-safety/) · [Vision & language 1](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/multimodal/) ## Works by year ### 2020s [**2024** 1 paper](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/maini-2024-tofu-task-fictitious-unlearning-llms/) · [**2023** 1 paper](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/zou-2023-universal-transferable-adversarial-attacks-aligned/) ### 2010s [**2019** 1 paper](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/tsai-2019-multimodal-transformer-unaligned-multimodal-language/) ## Papers The most cited first (OpenAlex and our library). 1. **[Multimodal Transformer for Unaligned Multimodal Language Sequences](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/tsai-2019-multimodal-transformer-unaligned-multimodal-language/)** *(2019 · 2 170 citations)* People communicate through words, facial expressions and tone of voice, but these streams are recorded at different rates. 2. **[Universal and Transferable Adversarial Attacks on Aligned Language Models](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/zou-2023-universal-transferable-adversarial-attacks-aligned/)** *(2023 · 951 citations)* Chatbots fine-tuned for safety are trained to refuse harmful requests. Before this paper, most ways around that refusal were handwritten jailbreaks that broke easily, and automatic prompt search had mostly failed. The authors present Greedy Coordinate Gradient (GCG), an automated attack that learns a short… 3. **[TOFU: A Task of Fictitious Unlearning for LLMs](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/maini-2024-tofu-task-fictitious-unlearning-llms/)** *(2024 · 133 citations)* LLMs can memorize and reveal private details about people. "Unlearning" means adjusting a trained model so it forgets particular data. However, it has been hard to tell whether existing unlearning methods produce a model that behaves like one that never saw that data. TOFU (Task of Fictitious Unlearning) addresses… ## Also in our library 5 more works of theirs are in our library without a page here yet; they will appear as we publish them. ## Co-authors here 10 co-authors with a page, the most papers together first. - [Andy Zou](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/andy-zou/) - [Avi Schwarzschild](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/avi-schwarzschild/) - [Louis-Philippe Morency](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/louis-philippe-morency/) - [Milad Nasr](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/milad-nasr/) - [Nicholas Carlini](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/nicholas-carlini/) - [Paul Pu Liang](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/paul-pu-liang/) - [Ruslan Salakhutdinov](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ruslan-salakhutdinov/) - [Yao-Hung Hubert Tsai](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/yao-hung-hubert-tsai/) - [Zachary C. Lipton](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/zachary-c-lipton/) - [Zifan Wang](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/zifan-wang/) ## Cited by Papers of our library cite their works 1 545 times (of the 140 884 papers whose bibliographies we read); [61 citing papers with a page here →](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/j-zico-kolter/cited-by/).