Human-Centered AI Research Intern, Causal Reasoning Models

Toyota Ventures; Los Altos (CA); Hybrid; USD 62,000 - 90,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid internship

Hybrid in-office

Job summary

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is offering a Winter 2027 paid 12-week internship in its Adaptive Behavior Systems team within the Human-Centered AI Division. The role focuses on causal reasoning in language models, collaborating with ML researchers and social scientists to push boundaries and target publications in top venues.

The internship is hybrid in-office and emphasizes project ownership from inception to validation, with opportunities to influence business impact through strategic

Qualifications

• PhD student in AI/ML, CS, data science, statistics, or related field.
• Publication record or demonstrated research in causal inference (structural causal models, identification, counterfactual reasoning).
• Hands-on experience with LLM evaluation, benchmarking, prompting, RLHF or related methods to improve LLM reasoning.
• Proficiency in Python and DL frameworks like PyTorch.
• Interest in human-centered research with qualitative or quantitative methods.

Responsibilities

• Publish research in a relevant venue (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, etc.).
• Own the project from ideation to validation of methods.
• Collaborate across disciplines to apply generative AI to understand human behavior.

Skills

Python

LLM evaluation

Teamwork

Causal reasoning research

Education

PhD student

Tools

PyTorch

Job description

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 in Human-Centered AI, Large Behavior Models, Robotics, Automated Driving, Energy & Materials and Human Interactive Driving.

The Team

This internship opportunity falls within the Adaptive Behavior Systems team of Human-Centered AI Division (HCAI). We are an integrated team of ML researchers and social and behavior scientists. At the core of our work, we aim to enable decisions through human-centered AI 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 adaptive behavior systems team to push the boundaries of causal reasoning in LLMs. The intern will collaborate with our interdisciplinary team of machine learning, behavioral, and social scientists to study how well language-based generative machine learning models can reason causally and to develop methods for testing and improving causal reasoning. The project will be focused on researching in a specific sub-area of the overall goal, towards publication in a top-tier venue. The intern will further engage in strategy discussions about how the research connects to business impact at Toyota.

This is a Winter 2027 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, CLeaR, UAI, and COLM, with ACL or EMNLP where the contribution is primarily linguistic, and TMLR as a journal option. Findings may also be presented at ACIC or EuroCIM. 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, data science, statistics, or related field.
• Publication record or demonstrated research experience in causal inference (structural causal models, identification, counterfactual reasoning).
• Hands-on experience with one or more of: LLM evaluation and benchmarking; mechanistic interpretability; and methods for improving LLM reasoning, including prompting and prompt optimization, post-training (supervised fine-tuning or reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards), pretraining, or architectural changes.
• Experience with Python programming and DL frameworks like Pytorch.
• Interest in human-centered research (e.g. behavioral science, computational social science), including qualitative and/or quantitative methods such as experiments and user studies.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills.

The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $45 and $65/hour for California-based roles; however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Note that TRI offers a generous benefits package including vacation and sick time. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

TRI is fueled by a diverse and inclusive community of people with unique backgrounds, education and life experiences. We are dedicated to fostering an innovative and collaborative environment by living the values that are an essential part of our culture. We believe diversity makes us stronger and are proud to provide Equal Employment Opportunity for all, without regard to an applicant’s race, color, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, religion, marital status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state or local laws.

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.

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.

TRI is fueled by a diverse and inclusive community of people with unique backgrounds, education and life experiences. We are dedicated to fostering an innovative and collaborative environment by living the values that are an essential part of our culture. We believe diversity makes us stronger and are proud to provide Equal Employment Opportunity for all, without regard to an applicant’s race, color, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, religion, marital status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state or local laws.

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.