Michael Rizvi-Martel
Hi! I'm Michael, a PhD student in Computer Science at Mila and Université de Montréal. I am co-supervised by Guillaume Rabusseau (UdeM & Mila) and Adam Oberman (McGill & LawZero). I am also fortunate to be mentored by Michael Hahn. My research is generously funded by an NSERC Canada Graduate Research Scholarship.
My research interests are all over the place, but I am generally interested in better understanding the limitations and capacities of modern AI systems. My work is guided by questions such as:
- Why do LLMs sometimes fail on tasks that appear simple to us yet excel on tasks that seem difficult?
- What fundamental principles govern learning in these models? How are Transformer-based LLMs able to generalize to longer sequences than those they train on?
So far, this has led me to a blend of interpretability and theoretical research. I strongly believe that understanding AI systems more deeply can help us make them safer, anticipate future technological developments, and design better-informed policies.
News
- I will be presenting two novel workshop papers at NeurIPS 2025: the first at FoRLM (Foundations of Reasoning in Language Models) and the second at WCTD (What Can('t) Transformers Do).
Selected Publications
- Lizaire, M., Rizvi-Martel, M., Gamal, M., & Rabusseau, G. A Tensor Decomposition Perspective on Second-order RNNs. In Forty-first International Conference on Machine Learning. (Spotlight!)
- Rizvi-Martel, M., Lizaire, M., Lacroce, C., & Rabusseau, G. (2024, April). Simulating weighted automata over sequences and trees with transformers. In International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (pp. 2368-2376). PMLR.
Talks
- "Simulating Weighted Automata over Sequences and Trees with Transformers" - FLaNN Seminar Series, May 2024. [video]
- "LLMs and How to Use Them" - Seminar at the Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine, February 2024. [slides]
CV
Download my CV here.
Fun
When I am not doing research, you can find me rock climbing, hiking or canoe camping! I am also an avid guitar player and love discovering new (and old) restaurants in the Montréal area. I even made a list for anyone that may be travelling to Montreal. Oh, and I have a cat.
Contact
You can reach me at michael [dot] rizvi-martel [at] mila [dot] quebec
