Hi! I’m William (or Will) Brannock. I just finished graduate school at the University of Virginia where I studied machine learning and data science. I’m especially interested in how Large Language Models (LLMs) make decisions and form beliefs through post-training. I think safely aligning AI systems is one of the most important technological challenges of our time. Some of my other academic and professional interests include MLOps and distributed computing.

Before graduate school, I spent a few years doing data analytics and statistical modeling trying to increase routine vaccination uptake across Virginia. Vaccinations are one of the great achievements of human civilization and have saved hundreds of millions of lives. I am optimistic that deep learning, if applied responsibly, can help further reduce the burden of communicable diseases.

I am originally from southwest Virginia and have an undergraduate degree in engineering from Virginia Tech. Outside of school and work, some of my hobbies include watching college sports, trivia, homelabbing and reading.