# Training models one step at a time

I'm a Staff Research Scientist at **Salesforce** (joined via Tenyx acquisition). I currently work on the fundamentals of Large Language Models, focusing on training methodologies, understanding, and agentic applications.

## About

Sarath Shekkizhar, Ph.D. is an AI Researcher (Staff Research Scientist at Salesforce) working on large language models, agentic systems, LLM training, reasoning, and the geometry of neural representations. Contact and verification: [/contact](https://shekkizh.com/contact), [/about](https://shekkizh.com/about).


## What's new

- **July 2026:** [New blog post: Do Harnesses Matter? What seven Codex releases reveal about agent efficiency](https://shekkizh.com/blog/codex-harness-efficiency)
- **May 2026:** [Paper out on arXiv: Counterparty Modeling is Not Strategy: The Limits of LLM Negotiators](https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16575)
- **Apr 2026:** [Paper out on arXiv: User Turn Generation as a Probe of Interaction Awareness in Language Models](https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.02315)
- **Feb 2026:** [Paper out on arXiv: Interaction Theater: A case of LLM Agents Interacting at Scale](https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.20059)
- **Dec 2025:** [Blog post with Silvio on the Agent-to-Agent Semantic Layer](https://www.salesforce.com/blog/agent-to-agent-interaction/)

## Selected publications

- [Counterparty Modeling is Not Strategy: The Limits of LLM Negotiators](https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16575) — arXiv Preprints, 2026
- [Beyond the Assistant Turn: User Turn Generation as a Probe of Interaction Awareness in Language Models](https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.02315) — arXiv Preprints, 2026
- [Echoing: Identity Failures when LLM Agents Talk to Each Other](https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.09710) — arXiv Preprints, 2025
- [Reasoning in Large Language Models: A Geometric Perspective](https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.02678) — arXiv Preprints, 2024

## Site index

- [About](https://shekkizh.com/about)
- [Complete publications](https://shekkizh.com/publications)
- [CV](https://shekkizh.com/cv)
- [Blog](https://shekkizh.com/blog)
- [Tools](https://shekkizh.com/tools)
- [Contact](https://shekkizh.com/contact)
- [Privacy](https://shekkizh.com/privacy)
- [Agent-oriented site index](https://shekkizh.com/llms.txt)

Canonical URL: https://shekkizh.com