Utopai Studios Names Former Disney AI VP Hans Ku as Chief Product Officer

Utopai Studios has appointed Hans Ku as Chief Product Officer, tasking him with leading product, engineering, research, and business development at the Mountain View-based AI film studio. Ku most recently served as Vice President of AI and Engineering at The Walt Disney Company, where he helped shape Disney's generative content strategy and played a key role in the studio's collaboration with OpenAI on its Sora video model.

At Utopai, Ku will set strategic direction for PAI — the company's cinematic storytelling engine aimed at long-form video production — spanning AI models, agentic systems, production workflows, and developer tooling. He brings deep industry roots, including early work on Disney's paperless animation system Creation Station, a Scientific and Engineering Award-winning color display project at DreamWorks Animation, and stints as CPO of Flipagram (later acquired by ByteDance and reborn as TikTok) and SVP of Product at streaming service Tubi.