Walt Disney Imagineering is expanding its AI research efforts. Walt Disney Imagineering R&D (Research & Development) is seeking to hire two new AI-specific roles: a Senior AI Research Engineer and an AI Research Engineer.
The roles will include overseeing exploratory proof-of-concepts, testing and evaluation, and the translation of experimental AI technologies into robust, production-ready tools for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Senior Research Engineer role will include the ability to design, prototype, and build software algorithms, components, and complex systems to support based on generative AI and intelligent agent concepts across Disney’s themed entertainment portfolio. The role will also include production deployment and testing.
The role will also explore how AI research could help creative and technical tasks such as visual synthesis, simulation, asset generation, and design assistance. The Senior Research Engineer role will look at the feasibility of incorporating and integrating certain tools and methods into WDI’s various pipelines.
Research Engineer role will implement and evaluate prototypes based on generative AI and intelligent agent concepts. The role will focus on software development, integration, prototyping, and more. The role does have an obvious overlap with the Senior Research Engineer position, as they are looking at ways to implement AI tools for creative and technical tasks (visual synthesis, simulation, asset generation, design assistance, etc).
Disney also notes that for both roles that the Senior AI Research Engineer and the AI Research Engineer will also partner with interdisciplinary teams to ensure AI applications empower rather than constrain artistic and storytelling processes.
Both roles will report to the Associate Lab Director and contribute to the AI/ML applied research portfolio for Imagineering R&D.
Walt Disney Imagineering is expanding its AI research efforts across the board. It’s also evident that Disney doesn’t want to constrain the artistic and storytelling processes for its Imagineers. I’m sure these new AI roles are just the start. Disney formed an AI task force in 2023, and Walt Disney Imagineering was one of the key divisions mentioned.
Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Research have been studying AI for a while. Walt Disney Imagineering already has a few roles dedicated to artificial intelligence and machine learning. Disney Research has been studying artificial intelligence since 2014, long before it would become such a hot-button and often a touchy subject.
Some of Disney Research’s AI projects include Persistent Memory in Repeated Child-Robot Conversations (how a robot can use information from prior conversations with the same child to foster a sense of relationship over time), A Deep Learning Approach for Generalized Speech Animation(automatically generate natural-looking speech animation that synchronizes to input speech), and Disney’s De-Aging Tool (Disney can save hours of post-production by de-aging actors in seconds).
Walt Disney Imagineering has utilized AI for its autonomous characters like the Vyloo, Project Kiwi (Baby Groot), and the BDX Droids. NVIDIA is also collaborating with Disney Research and Google’s DeepMind AI lab to develop Newton, an AI-based tech that will allow robots to learn how to handle complex tasks with greater precision.
As more details emerge about Walt Disney Imagineering’s AI research efforts, we will report them here at Boardwalk Times.
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Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times
