Hi! I am Sunny :)

I am an incoming first year PhD in Computer Science at Princeton University. Previously, I graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Symbolic Systems (with honors and distinction, Phi Beta Kappa) and an MS in Computer Science. I was very fortunate to be advised by Dan Jurafsky and Robert Hawkins.

I am interested in the intersection between cognitive science and AI, specifically using insights about human cognition to build safe and more robust and interpretable AI systems that can benefit our long-term development.

Outside of research, here are some things that I love: good books (modernist, feminist, sci-fi, satirical), black tea, running, hiking and the outdoors, tennis and badminton, and any theory-of-mind board games (especially Avalon). One of my biggest dreams is to write an autobiographical fiction.

Recent Papers

The Efficiency-Gain Illusion: People Underestimate the Rate of AI Use and Overestimate Its Benefits on Simple Tasks. Sunny Yu, Myra Cheng, Ahmad Jabbar, Ilia Sucholutsky, Katherine M. Collins, Dan Jurafsky, Robert D. Hawkins. Pre-print, under review (2026).

Generation Space Size: Understanding and Calibrating Open-Endedness of LLM Generations. Sunny Yu, Ahmad Jabbar, Robert Hawkins, Dan Jurafsky, Myra Cheng. Pre-print, under review (2025).

ELEPHANT: Measuring And Understanding Social Sycophancy in LLMs. Myra Cheng*, Sunny Yu*, Cinoo Lee, Pranav Khadpe, Lujain Ibrahim, Dan Jurafsky. ICLR (2026).