Li is a PhD student, funded by the Flemish AI plan, in the ABACUS group (led by Professor Bart de Boer) at the VUB AI Lab. His research explores how the ability to recognise basic sounds and combine them into structures like syllables and tones emerges and evolves when cognitively plausible agents interact, equipped with deep learning mechanisms and physical vocal tract constraints. By integrating XAI with real-world linguistic typological data, he aims to uncover the minimal conditions for how such combinatoriality arises within a complex adaptive system, ultimately bridging insights between language evolution and AI.
Li’s work is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on fields such as usage-based linguistics, comparative communication and cognition, and cumulative cultural evolution. Before joining the AI Lab, Li earned a Bachelor’s degree in EE in China and, driven by his interest in simulating language evolution, completed a Research Master’s in Linguistics at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. He also brings several years of experience working as a data/research engineer across both industry and academia.