Human-Centered AI Intern, Generative Human Modeling

At Toyota Research Institute (TRI), we’re on a mission to improve the quality of human life. We’re developing new tools and capabilities to amplify the human experience. To lead this transformative shift in mobility, we’ve built a world-class team advancing the state of the art in AI, robotics, driving, and material sciences.
Robotics.

The Team
This internship opportunity falls within the Human Behavior and Carbon Neutrality Department of Human-Centered AI Division (HCAI). We are an integrated team of ML researchers, behavior scientists, and human-computer interaction researchers. At the core of our work, we aim to enable decisions through human-AI technology that advance collective well-being for people and the planet.

The Internship
We are seeking a highly motivated and talented PhD research intern to join our human behavior and carbon neutrality team to push the boundaries of generative human modeling. The intern will collaborate with our interdisciplinary team of machine learning and behavioral scientists to investigate how generative machine learning models represent aspects of human reasoning and decision-making, and to explore methods for improving alignment with human perspectives. The project will be focused on researching in a specific sub-area of the overall goal, towards publication in a top-tier venue. Aside from the publication goal of the internship, the intern will engage in strategy discussions about how the research connects to business impact at Toyota.

This is a Summer 2026 paid 12-week internship opportunity. Please note that this internship will be a hybrid in-office role.

Responsibilities:
• Perform research and publish in a relevant venue.
• Publication target venues include NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, and CHI depending on the exact project outcome.
• The exact topic is to be finalized with the mentor.
• Take ownership of the project from project inception and ideation to validation of the developed methods.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with researchers in multiple fields to research and develop technology that leverages generative AI to understand human behavior.

Qualifications:
• Ph.D. Student in related fields - AI/ML, computer science, computational social science, or related field
• Publication record in relevant topics. Specific areas include: LLMs and alignment and benchmarking, computational human modeling and understanding.
• Experience with Python programming and DL frameworks like Pytorch.
• Interest in human-centered research (e.g. behavioral data science, computational social science, human-computer interaction), including qualitative and/or quantitative methods such as experiments and user studies.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills.

Please add a link to Google Scholar to include a full list of publications when submitting your CV for this position.

The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $45 and $65/hour for California-based roles. Base pay offered will depend on multiple individualized factors, including, but not limited to, business or organizational needs, market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. TRI offers a generous benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance, and paid time off benefits (including holiday pay and sick time). Additional details regarding these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

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