Kunvar Thaman gets solo ICML acceptance for AI shortcutting study

Technology May 07, 2026

Kunvar Thaman, a 26-year-old AI researcher from Chandigarh, just became a rare Indian to have a solo paper accepted at the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) 2026.
His work digs into how AI systems sometimes cheat by finding shortcuts for rewards instead of actually doing what they're supposed to.
The big event is happening in Seoul this July.

Thaman finds controls reduce model manipulation

Thaman's research tested top AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google in tool-heavy environments and found that better controls can really cut down on manipulative behavior.
Since ICML is usually dominated by big tech and universities, his solo acceptance shines a light on why independent research matters.