Machine Learning Intern - Master's
Summary
12-week summer Machine Learning Research Internship on PlayStation's Game Service ML team at Sony Interactive Entertainment in San Mateo, CA. The intern researches multimodal AI (contrastive/self-supervised learning, state space models) that analyzes gameplay video, audio, and controller inputs to automatically detect bugs and glitches during game QA/testing, prototyping findings in Python with Py
Role Summary:
Join the Game Service ML team within PlayStation Global Research & Development (R&D) at Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and gain hands-on experience applying machine learning research to real-world gaming challenges.
As a Machine Learning Research Intern, you'll explore how multimodal AI can use gameplay video, audio, and/or controller inputs to automatically identify bugs and glitches during game development, certification and compatibility testing. Your work will contribute to research that helps make game QA more efficient for developers and improve gaming experiences for millions of players.
Based in San Mateo, you'll work with the London-based Anomaly Detection focus team and have opportunities to collaborate with researchers and engineers in the San Mateo-based GameLens focus team. With guidance from experienced researchers, you'll take ownership of a focused research problem, explore new machine learning approaches, and gain practical experience turning research ideas into working prototypes.
What You’ll Be Doing:
- Research and explore machine learning techniques, including contrastive learning, self-supervised learning and state space models, to improve game scene representations for bug and glitch detection.
- Contribute to multimodal AI research that improves how machine learning models understand gameplay and supports more effective automated QA.
- Design and conduct experiments to evaluate model performance, analyze results, and identify opportunities to improve anomaly and glitch detection.
- Develop and test prototypes that apply promising AI-based approaches to real-world challenges in PlayStation environments.
- Collaborate with researchers and engineers to share findings, incorporate feedback, and contribute ideas to ongoing research discussions.
- Gain hands-on experience applying advanced machine learning methods to gaming, from exploring research questions and conducting experiments to developing working prototypes.
What We’re Looking For:
- Currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related field.
- Strong foundation in machine learning, computer vision, or natural language processing.
- Proficiency in Python programming and familiarity with modern ML libraries.
- Hands-on experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
- Strong problem-solving skills, curiosity, and the ability to collaborate effectively as part of a research team.
- Coursework or prior experience in areas such as self-supervised learning, contrastive learning, state-space models, multimodal AI, or vision-language models is a plus.
- Proficiency in data analysis, signal processing, or statistical modeling is desirable.
- Interest in audio, gaming, game engines, or the intersection of machine learning and game technology is highly desirable.
Eligibility
- Students with expected graduation between May 2026 and December 2029 from an accredited university. Advanced Degree - Master’s
- Able to work during one of the following periods: May 17th - August 6th or June 14th - September 3rd. Relocation assistance is available for eligible candidates.
- Must be available for the entire 12-week internship period.
At this time, SIE will only consider applicants who are authorized to work for any employer in the United States and who will not require work visa sponsorship from SIE now or in the future to maintain their authorization to work in the United States.
Our intern positions offer a fixed hourly pay rate. Please note that the pay rate is exclusive to the internship period and may not reflect what pay may look like following the completion of an internship.
At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location.
Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.
Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.
Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your data protection rights.
Skills
As published by greenhouse · 11 questions
Basics
First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Resume/CV, Cover Letter, Location
Short answers (4)
- Preferred First Name optional
- LinkedIn Profile URL optional
- If yes, please state their name, the department or studio they work for, and their job title (if you know it).
- Portfolio Website optional
Pick from a list (7)
- Are you currently enrolled in an accredited university, or recent graduate as of May 2026?
- Are you projected to graduate between May 2026 and December 2029?
- Have you ever worked for a Sony company previously?
- Are you authorized to work in the United States?
- Will you now or in the future require visa sponsorship to work in the United States, including for any potential full-time position that may be offered following your internship? (EX: current F-1/OPT/CPT student, H-1B, H-1B1, TN, E-3, etc.)
- Are you related to, or in a close personal relationship with, anyone who currently works for SIE or any SIE-affiliated studios? (This includes spouses, domestic partners, and significant others.)
- By selecting "Yes", I am certifying that, to the best of my knowledge, the information I have provided in this employment application is true and correct.
