Karlo Vrancic
Hydra · Harvard · MIT · previously CERN, Databricks, EPFL
I run a lot of AI agents, and some of the companies they build actually make money. The rest of the time I try to work out what is going on inside models (mechanistic interpretability, safety, alignment), teach MRI scans to talk, and lecture at MIT and Harvard about what agents turn into once we let them grow up.
Start here
Latest
When removing a feature removes the model
A paper on why two things called feature ablation behave nothing alike, and the one number that tells them apart.
Harvard against my old faculty, on Podkist (another site)
What studying in America is like and what AI did to the engineer's job, in Croatian, for seventy minutes.
Two hours on the red couch (another site)
Croatia's biggest podcast asked whether AI is good news. I said mostly yes and then spent two hours qualifying it.
The FER Survival Guide (another site)
The most watched lecture in the University of Zagreb's history, about how to survive it.
Timeline
2026
June
Product management intern at Databricks
Kinda boring honestly.
February
Mechanistic Interpretability Research
Looking inside models to see what they are doing.
February
Guest lectures at MIT and Harvard
On what AI agents become after deployment, which turned into the manifesto.
February
Wrote The Nurture Thesis
The short version of what I think agents are missing.
2025
September
Started a master's in data science at Harvard
On a full scholarship, and cross-registered at MIT (better courses worse culture ngl)
July
Engineering fellow at CERN
Built a system that caught over a quarter of a million fake scientific publications.
Co-founded Hydra
A company that builds companies out of AI agents while I sleep.
2024
October
Three Rector's Awards in one year
Allegedly the first student at the University of Zagreb to win three categories at once.
September
Exchange at EPFL in Lausanne
A class project about a Wikipedia game ended up in the course Hall of Fame.
2023
October
The FER Survival Guide lecture
How to get through my faculty, which became the most watched lecture in the university's history.
April
Won LUMEN Development
Biggest dev competition in the Balkan region. Figured out I can actually do stuff.
2021
October
Started computer science at FER in Zagreb
À nous deux maintenant!
2020
March
Won the Croatian high-school quiz league
Then started writing quizzes for other people to lose.
2018
U16 Basketball National Team
Bro trust me if it wasn't for my knees I'd be in the NBA.