Human-Centered AI Intern: Human-Computer Interaction

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. This is a paid 12-week internship opportunity and is a hybrid, in-office role. Here’s a glimpse into the Internship experience from some of our TRI interns! We welcome applicants from fields such as human-computer interaction, computer sciences, affective computing, social sciences, organizational behavior, sociology, behavioral economics, human factors, or related disciplines, provided they have strong methodological training and interest in collective wellbeing. The Mission This internship falls within the Harmonious Communities Department in the Human-Centered AI Division (HCAI). Our research aims to understand, simulate, and shape wellbeing in complex, real-world systems, including workplaces, communities, and organizations. We study how wellbeing emerges, is distributed, and changes over time across groups, and how organizational structures, technologies, and policies can support collective outcomes now and into the future. The Team We are an integrated team of behavioral scientists, machine-learning researchers, and human-computer interaction experts. Our research leverages real-world use cases to push the state-of-the-art in disciplinary thinking. The Internship We are looking for a Human-Computer Interaction (or similar) intern to investigate how organizations produce, distribute, and manage the emotional labor of difficult workplace conversations, and what the informal adoption of AI tools in this space reveals about systemic gaps in organizational support structures. This project, situated within our conversational AI research initiative, engages foundational questions at the intersection of organizational behavior, sociotechnical systems, and AI. The project will involve conceptual work, quantitative and/or qualitative analysis, and system design, with an emphasis on multilevel thinking. Research terrains guiding the work include: Informal AI adoption and organizational gaps Organizational production of emotional labor Informal peer learning networks Typology of difficult conversations The strongest candidates will be generalists and flexible problem solvers. This internship is well-suited for candidates who are excited to build prototype solutions and take on high-risk, high-reward challenges outside of the traditional academic research setting. Bonus points for experience in Future-of-Work research or organizational behavior. Over the course of the project, in addition to Harmonious Communities group meetings, you will participate in all Human-Centered AI Division meetings and broader TRI events. You will be exposed to how interdisciplinary industrial research works and learn from our team and other interns in our division. You will also engage in strategy discussions about how your internship research connects to business impact at Toyota. Responsibilities Scope a research project aligned with Harmonious Communities’ HCI, Conversational AI, and Organizational Behavior research agenda. Evaluate an existing conversational AI platform and, where gaps are identified, design and prototype alternative or supplementary solutions. Drive the end‑to‑end research plan, with regular feedback from your mentor and teammates. Develop a taxonomy for understanding the factors shaping “difficulty” in workplace conversations. Present findings in research meetings to the Harmonious Communities Department, the HCAI Division, TRI leadership, and Toyota business group partners. Produce work that informs internal strategy and is aimed at publication in an academic journal or conference. Qualifications Currently enrolled in a PhD degree program. Track record of implementing research projects from start to finish. Demonstrated experience with prototype design, as well as mixed‑methods research design and analyses. Familiarity with messy, real‑world data, and evidence of critical, creative thinking about how this impacts study design and insights. Ability to reason across multiple levels of analysis and translate research insights into implications for organizational decision-making. Desire to work on challenging, open‑ended research projects. Desire to be part of a highly interdisciplinary team and understanding of how this will improve your work. Demonstrated ability to work autonomously while proactively soliciting feedback. Interest in wellbeing, organizational behavior, emotional labor, and/or the future of work. 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, a candidate's experience, skills, job‑related knowledge, and market location. 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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