Hans Ku, a former Disney, DreamWorks and Yahoo exec, has been named Chief Product Officer at Utopai Studios, where he will lead product, engineering, research and business development and aim to increase the scale of the technology behind the emerging firm’s film and TV slate and expand its cinematic storytelling engine. Ku most recently had been VP of AI & Engineering in Disney’s Office of Technology Enablement and played a key role in Disney’s connection with OpenAI around Sora; at the end of 2025, Disney swung a deal with OpenAI to license characters for use on Sora in exchange for a $1 billion equity investment, an arrangement later undone after Sora was shuttered. Prior to his AI stint at Disney, Ku worked at Walt Disney Deature Animation, where he created a system to help traditional animators online, and as an exec at DreamWorks Animation he created the DreamColor display in collaboration with HP, which netted him a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has also been an entrepreneur and a product exec at Tubi, Yahoo and TikTok predecessor Flipagram. Utopai Studios, founded in 2022, recently raised $60 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. CEO and co-founder Cecilia Shen said Ku knows what it takes to move emerging technology from experimentation into an organization operating at global scale, and Ku said his focus is on building PAI alongside filmmakers.