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Zhou (Jo) Yu

Zhou (Jo) Yu

Co-Founder Arklex.AI & Columbia University AI Professor, Forbes 30 Under 30

New York, New York
columbia
Joined February 2025
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Summary

Zhou (Jo) Yu is a leading expert in conversational AI and intelligent interactive systems, with a strong focus on designing human-centered AI that understands and responds to non-verbal cues. Her work integrates multimodal sensing, natural language processing, machine learning, and human-computer interaction to create AI that can engage more naturally and effectively with users. This interdisciplinary approach has led to breakthroughs in areas like user engagement in dialogues and personalized persuasive systems. columbia+2
A successful entrepreneur, Zhou (Jo) Yu is the Co-Founder & CEO of Arklex.AI, a startup dedicated to empowering the future workspace through AI Agents. Her venture focuses on making AI agent design and deployment accessible and efficient, recognized by its inclusion in the NVIDIA Inception Program and Alchemist '23. This demonstrates her ability to translate cutting-edge academic research into practical, impactful technological solutions. columbia+2
As an Associate Professor at Columbia University, Zhou (Jo) Yu is a dedicated educator and mentor, guiding PhD students and shaping the next generation of AI researchers. She created the first Conversational AI course at Columbia and has received numerous faculty awards from institutions like Sony, Walmart AI Lab, Cisco, IBM, and Adobe, underscoring her significant contributions to both research and academia. columbia+1
Zhou (Jo) Yu's research has achieved significant recognition, including being named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science in 2018 and winning the 2018 Amazon Alexa Prize Socialbot Competition with $500,000. Her paper 'Persuasion for Good' received an ACL 2019 best paper nomination, and her work is highly cited (h-index of 51, over 10,000 citations), demonstrating her profound impact and influence in the fields of AI, natural language processing, and human-computer interaction. columbia+3

Work

Education

Projects

Writing

Check your facts and try again: Improving large language models with external knowledge and automated feedback

January 1, 2023

A highly cited paper from 2023 that focuses on methods to enhance the accuracy and reliability of large language models by integrating external knowledge and automated feedback mechanisms.

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Artificial intelligence chatbot behavior change model for designing artificial intelligence chatbots to promote physical activity and a healthy diet

January 1, 2020

A 2020 paper exploring the application of AI chatbots in promoting healthy behaviors, such as physical activity and diet, through a behavior change model. This demonstrates her interest in applying AI to health and well-being.

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Persuasion for Good: Towards a Personalized Persuasive Dialogue System for Social Good

January 1, 2019

A paper nominated for the ACL 2019 best paper award, focusing on developing dialogue systems that can effectively persuade users for positive social outcomes, such as donating to charities. The research also explores ethical concerns and human factors in deploying personalized persuasive dialogue systems.

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Situated Intelligent Interactive Systems (PhD Thesis)

January 1, 2017

Her doctoral thesis from Carnegie Mellon University, which served as a foundational work for her research career. It explores the design, implementation, and deployment of end-to-end real-time interactive intelligent systems that can plan globally considering interaction history and current user actions to achieve better user experience and task performance, integrating multimodal sensing, natural language processing, machine learning, and human-computer interaction.

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Hobbies

Enjoys walks in the park, camping with friends, reading paperbacks, and watching YouTube animal videos as a way to relieve stress. syncedreview

Notes

RCRachel Chalmerssaid they trust
ZYZhou (Jo) Yu
to lead major initiatives deploying AI agentic systems in enterprise environments.

Oct 22, 2025

RCRachel Chalmerssaid they would trust
ZYZhou (Jo) Yu
to lead a top new consumer startup focused on AI-driven companions or voice technologies.

Aug 27, 2025