When Pauline Leininger goes to the movies, she tries not to focus on the technical effects. “A good movie should make you feel so deeply involved in the story that you don’t give any thought to how it was made.” Yet she could easily tell whether images were filmed in real life, digitally altered, or generated entirely artificially. That’s because as a research associate at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), Pauline Leininger researches the way artificial intelligence (AI) is used in film production.

The path that led her into AI research began at LMU, where she completed a bachelor’s degree in media informatics, specializing in human-computer interaction. Early on in her studies, she explored the question of how digital technologies can support creative processes. During her master’s studies at the Institute of Media Informatics, she investigated how AI-generated environments can be used for virtual film productions and developed corresponding digital tools. She then completed her master’s thesis at HFF and submitted it to LMU. Her work received multiple awards, including the AI-HUB@LMU Prize and the  ARD/ZDF “Women + Media Technology” sponsorship award (German only)