2027 Summer Intern, AI Research, Embodied AI

General Motors; Sunnyvale (CA); Hybrid; USD 132,000 - 163,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid internship

Mentorship with senior researchers

Growth opportunities

Job summary

General Motors Company invites applications for an Embodied AI Research Intern in Sunnyvale, CA. You will conduct applied research at the intersection of ML, robotics, and autonomous driving, collaborating with experienced researchers and engineers to design experiments, train models, and communicate findings.

Focus areas include foundation models for autonomy, vision-language-action models, world models, learning for planning and control, and multimodal temporal learning.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing or in the process of obtaining a Ph.D. in Machine Learning, AI, CS, Robotics, or a related field.
• Strong understanding of modern ML and deep learning methods.
• Proficiency in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX) or equivalent.
• Demonstrated AI/ML research through coursework, projects, publications, or similar work.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with experimental design.

Responsibilities

• Formulate research problems and develop prototypes for autonomous driving.
• Design and run experiments, ablation studies, and quantitative evaluations.
• Train and benchmark models using large-scale datasets and distributed compute.
• Analyze model behavior, failure cases, generalization, and tradeoffs.
• Collaborate with perception, planning, robotics, controls, and systems teams.
• Contribute to research documentation, publications, patents, or open-source work.
• Present findings clearly to technical and cross-functional audiences.

Skills

ML fundamentals

Python + ML frameworks

Research experience

Analytical problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication skills

Education

Ph.D. in ML/AI/CS/Robotics or related field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

JAX

C++

Job description

Job Description

Work Arrangement:

Hybrid: This internship is categorized ason-site. The selected intern is expected to report to the office 3 days a week.

Location:

Sunnyvale, CA

About the Team

The Embodied AI Research team advances artificial intelligence methods for autonomous vehicles and embodied systems. We explore how models can combine visual and sensor understanding, language and other modalities, reasoning, prediction, and action to address challenging problems in autonomous driving.

Our work includes foundation models, vision-language and vision-language-action architectures, generative and world models, self-supervised learning, imitation learning, reinforcement learning, multimodal learning, and methods for learning from large-scale driving data. We work closely with engineering teams to translate research into reliable systems for real-world autonomy.

About the Role

As an Embodied AI Research Intern, you will conduct applied research on a well-scoped project at the intersection of machine learning, robotics, and autonomous driving. You will work with experienced researchers and engineers to develop hypotheses, design experiments, train and evaluate models, analyze results, and communicate findings.

Potential focus areas include:

• Foundation Models for Autonomy: Develop or adapt large-scale models that learn useful representations and capabilities from diverse driving data.
• Vision-Language-Action Models: Explore architectures that connect multimodal perception and high-level reasoning with autonomous vehicle decisions and actions.
• Generative and World Models: Use generative techniques to model complex driving environments, improve scenario understanding, or support planning and simulation.
• Learning for Planning and Control: Apply imitation learning, reinforcement learning, or other learning methods to improve prediction, decision-making, and vehicle behavior.
• Multimodal and Temporal Learning: Build methods that reason over camera, lidar, radar, map, language, and time-series information.

What You’ll Do

• Formulate research problems and develop prototypes for autonomous driving applications.
• Design and run experiments, ablation studies, and quantitative evaluations.
• Train and benchmark models using large-scale datasets and distributed compute infrastructure.
• Analyze model behavior, failure cases, generalization, and performance tradeoffs.
• Collaborate with perception, planning, robotics, controls, and systems engineering teams.
• Contribute to technical discussions, research documentation, publications, patents, or open-source work where appropriate.
• Present findings clearly to technical and cross-functional audiences.

Required Qualifications

• Currently pursuing or in the process of obtaining a Ph.D. in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related technical field.
• Strong understanding of modern machine learning and deep learning methods.
• Proficiency in Python and experience with PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, or another machine learning framework.
• Demonstrated AI/ML research experience through coursework, academic projects, publications, or comparable work.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with experience designing experiments and interpreting results.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a cross-functional, team-oriented environment.
• Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills.
• Availability to work full-time, 40 hours per week, during the internship period.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with transformers, large language models, vision-language models, vision-language-action models, diffusion models, or other generative architectures.
• Experience with reinforcement learning, imitation learning, self-supervised learning, world models, multimodal learning, or temporal modeling.
• Familiarity with autonomous vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems, robotics, or embodied AI.
• Experience working with large-scale datasets, distributed training, high-performance computing, or model scaling.
• Evidence of significant technical results through first-authored publications, grants, fellowships, patents, or open-source contributions. Relevant venues may include NeurIPS, CVPR, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, ECCV, RSS, ICRA, CoRL, or similar conferences and workshops.
• Experience with C++ or another systems programming language.
• Intent to return to a degree program after completion of the internship or co-op.
• Must be graduating between December 2027 and June 2028

Compensation:

• The monthly salary range for this role is $11,800 – $14,600 per month
• GM will provide a one-time lump sum taxable stipend payment to eligible students selected for the 2027 Student Program.

What You’ll Get from Us

• Paid U.S. GM holidays.
• GM Family First Vehicle Discount Program.
• Potential for growth within GM based on performance and business needs.
• Intern events and opportunities to network with company leaders and peers.
• Mentorship and hands‑on experience with the data and ML foundations behind autonomy

About GM

Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all.

Why Join Us

We believe we all must make a choice every day – individually and collectively – to drive meaningful change through our words, our deeds and our culture. Every day, we want every employee to feel they belong to one General Motors team.

Benefits Overview

From day one, we’re looking out for your well-being–at work and at home–so you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources.

Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)

General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination, but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers.

All employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy or maternity status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran or protected veteran, or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal, state and local laws.

Accommodations

General Motors offers opportunities to all job seekers including individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, email us or call us at 1-800-865-7580. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.