mneuronico

Personal research, AI systems, and creative technology

Nicolás Martorell

Neuroscientist · ML Researcher · Author · Builder

Buenos Aires · UBA-CONICET · LIAA

Personal AI trained on my work, ideas and writing.

Brands and institutions I’ve worked with

CasanCrem Biferdil Sedal El Perro en la Luna C5N DirecTV Government of Entre Ríos Fundación Sí Gelatina Kabradepata Pauli Bakes SAN Siglo XXI Editores TV Pública Xplora Anda Calabaza Society for Neuroscience Argentine Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Boehringer Ingelheim Fulbright Argentina City of Buenos Aires Neuromatch Buenos Aires City Ministry of Education Buenos Aires AI Safety Hub
New · 2026
Cover of the book What is (and isn’t) Artificial Intelligence?

What is (and isn’t) Artificial Intelligence?

Ciencia que Ladra · Siglo XXI Editores · 2026

A science-outreach book on what AI is, what it isn’t, and how to think clearly about it. Written for curious readers, decision-makers, and anyone who suspects the public conversation is missing the plot.

Press & conversations

In the media

Interviews, reviews and conversations about artificial intelligence, neuroscience and the ideas behind my work.

Nicolás Martorell, photographed by Fabián Marelli for LA NACION
Fabián Marelli · LA NACION
Featured interview
LA NACIONSunday Conversations

“There is a lot of pessimism within the very community that builds AI”

A conversation with Martín De Ambrosio about AI safety, the future of work and the uncertainty of building intelligent machines.

More appearancesFewer appearances12 more
Goldfish, the stars of the research on escape decisions
Violeta Medan · NEXciencia
NEXciencia · Exactas UBAScience

Swim for your lives

How fish combine sights and sounds to escape danger: the research with Violeta Medan.

01 Research

Two angles on the same question , how brains and AI models represent ideas. PhD work on the zebrafish brain, postdoc work on what happens inside language models.

Selected papers

PowerBench , banner
Refusals of power-shifting requests across 24 LLMs
arXiv preprint · 2026 · AI Safety · Evaluation

PowerBench

Do language models help some people gain power more than others? Across 24 US and Chinese models, whether they refuse depends on who gains, who loses, and who is asking.

N. Martorell W. Brau G. A. Heredia T. P. Korenblit G. Labastié T. Gimenez Molina arXiv:2610.02303
Explaining is Harder Than Predicting Alone , banner
Concept-based explanations traded off against predictive accuracy in multimodal LLMs
ICML workshop · 2026 · ML · Multimodal · Interpretability

Explaining is Harder Than Predicting Alone

Can multimodal LLMs explain their own image classifications? Asking them for formal, concept-based explanations makes their predictions less accurate (93.8%→90.1%).

C. Quiles-Ramírez L. L. Rodríguez N. Martorell N. Díaz-Rodríguez ICML 2026 · CompLearn
Quantitative Introspection in Language Models , banner
Probe-defined internal-state tracking across a 10-turn conversation
arXiv preprint · 2026 · ML · Interpretability

Quantitative Introspection in Language Models

Asks whether language models can honestly report on their own inner states. Combines AI self-reports with independent measurements to show that, when properly elicited, models give a real readout of how they’re “feeling”.

N. Martorell F. Bianchi arXiv:2603.18893
From Text to Space , banner
Agent path in a grid-world navigation task probed inside the LLM
XAI World Conf · 2025 · ML · Spatial reasoning

From Text to Space

Asks whether language models build mental maps of space from pure text. Shows they do , and that the same internal map a model uses to navigate one task transfers to other spatial-reasoning tasks.

N. Martorell arXiv:2502.16690 Springer LNCS
Audiovisual integration in the zebrafish tectum , banner
Whole-tectum calcium imaging during audiovisual danger trials
bioRxiv preprint · 2025 · Neuroscience

Audiovisual integration in the zebrafish tectum

Whole-brain imaging in zebrafish to watch sight and hearing combine in real time when a threat appears. Custom hardware and analysis software link the brain activity to the actual escape behavior.

N. Martorell V. Medan bioRxiv 2025.12.30.697023
Audiovisual integration in the Mauthner cell , banner
Behavioral + computational model of multisensory escape decision-making
Scientific Reports · 2022 · Neuroscience

Audiovisual integration in the Mauthner cell

How fish combine sight and sound to escape danger faster, especially when each individual signal is weak. A simple model of where the signals merge in the brain explains the behavior.

N. Martorell V. Medan DOI 10.1038/s41598-022-04998-2

02 Awards & recognition

Society for Neuroscience logo
2024

Next Generation Award

Society for Neuroscience (SfN)

For the podcast A Todo Neuro for the Argentinian Neuroscience Society.

Argentine Ministry of Science logo
2023

Ciencia por Contar

Ministry of Science · Argentina

For environmental science shorts at Xplora.

Boehringer Ingelheim logo
2023

Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds

Travel Grant

3-month research stay in Paris with Germán Sumbre , IBENS, École Normale Supérieure.

Fulbright Argentina logo
2019

Friends of Fulbright

Fulbright Commission

Scholarship for studies at the University of Alabama, USA.

City of Buenos Aires logo
2013

Best GPA in Buenos Aires

City of Buenos Aires

City of Buenos Aires academic-excellence award.

03 Open source

Code I’ve shipped, open and used by other people.

MAS
Python framework · TOXI Media · MIT

multi-agent-system-library

An open-source toolkit I built to coordinate teams of AI agents , chatbots, decision systems, agents that can use tools. It powers the bot on this page, the CasanChef WhatsApp recipe assistant, and several products my company ships to clients.

Multi-agentTool-useProvider-agnosticProduction
Read the docs →
concept-probe
Interpretability tooling · MIT

concept-probe

Open-source library that detects what a language model is “thinking about”, and lets researchers gently steer its behavior.

04 AI-based experiences

AI products and brand experiences built end-to-end , from the first prototype down to the version that actually reaches the users.

CasanChef , AI virtual assistant character
CasanCrem · Danone Argentina

CasanChef

An AI cooking assistant on WhatsApp. Tell it what’s in your fridge and it suggests dishes you can actually make. Built for CasanCrem and used by thousands of people.

Sedal · Unilever

Look-IA-te

A beauty-brand activation that lets users try on different hairstyles in real time, in front of a camera. The first AI Beauty-Tech experience in Argentina, made for Sedal.

Daily LLM analysis · Next.js + Gemini

Argentina Explicada

A daily dashboard that reads the news and turns Argentine politics and the economy into clear charts. Generated automatically every morning.

VIA Studio · AI video production

VIA Studio

Produce a whole video with AI , from script and characters to generated images, video clips and the final edited cut, exported as a finished piece.

SpotifAI · AI music · curated player

SpotifAI

A music player where every song, album cover and artist is AI-generated , a glimpse of where music distribution might go in a few years.

Personal Assistant · Telegram · MAS

Personal Assistant

A personal assistant on Telegram. Manages your calendar, email, music, food log, and audio notes , all by chatting with it like a person.

Como Se Dice · AI language tutor

Como Se Dice

Understand any phrase in another language, word by word , translation, pronunciation (IPA), conjugations and cultural context. 28 pairs, by voice or photo.

noticIAs · Daily news · Telegram

noticIAs

A daily news bot. Reads a curated feed of voices on X every morning, summarizes the day, and sends the report to your Telegram.

05 Audiovisual productions

Animated music videos, scripts, and broadcast pieces , produced in-house or as creative direction for partner studios.

Cover of the syllabus of the Diploma in Audiovisual Production with Artificial Intelligence, UNLaM
UNLaM · University diploma

Audiovisual Production with AI

A university diploma I created, coordinate and teach at UNLaM: the whole audiovisual pipeline with generative AI, from script to image, video, sound and publishing.

Anda Calabaza · Animated music

Anda Calabaza

Animated music videos for kids , the Argentine national anthem and other classics, brought to life with AI-assisted animation.

Kabradepata · Kids music videos

Kabradepata

An ongoing series of animated music videos for kids. Original songs, full production, AI-assisted animation.

Los Viajes de Gurisa , animated children’s series
Los Viajes de Gurisa · Animated series

Los Viajes de Gurisa

An animated children’s series celebrating the traditions of Entre Ríos, produced end-to-end with El Perro en la Luna and the provincial government. Visit the official site.

Gurisa and Río, the leads of Gurisa y Río: entre mates y aventuras
Gurisa y Río · Animated series

Gurisa y Río

A five-episode spin-off of Los Viajes de Gurisa for the Government of Entre Ríos, with a classroom guide for each episode. I directed the AI-assisted animation with El Perro en la Luna. Visit the official site.

VIA · AI video agency

VIA

The AI-video agency where I produce work for brands. From the creative idea to the final cut, with AI tools at every step.

06 Apps & websites

Custom dashboards, finance tools, immersive sites, and small businesses online. Designed, built, and maintained end-to-end.

Audiolosophy · Philosophy audio

Audiolosophy

A philosophy audiobook library: the great works of human thought, narrated to listen anywhere. It remembers the exact spot where you left off.

Life Dashboard , quantified-self analytics
Vite + React · Recharts · Sheets

Life Dashboard

A personal dashboard for tracking my own life , sleep, mood, focus, exercise. The data lives in a simple spreadsheet I can edit anywhere.

Health Dashboard , clinical-style biometrics
Vite + React · Health time-series

Health Dashboard

A clean, clinical-feel dashboard for personal health metrics. Weight, blood pressure, resting heart rate, sleep, glucose , all in one place.

Pauli Bakes , custom-cake catalog
Pauli Bakes · Custom-cake catalog

Pauli Bakes

A site I designed and built for a small home bakery. Catalog, gallery, and an easy way for customers to order custom cakes.

Delta+ , 3D-scanned Paraná Delta ecosystem
El Perro en la Luna · 3D scan

Delta+

A piece of the Paraná Delta you can explore in your browser, scanned in 3D and rebuilt as an immersive walk-through. A love letter to a real ecosystem.

07 Art & communication

Music, podcasts, science outreach. Where the technical work meets the public conversation.

Xplora · C5N · Canal Encuentro

Xplora

A science communication channel I co-founded. Weekly videos for C5N, animated shorts for Canal Encuentro. Won the “Ciencia por Contar” government award in 2023.

A Todo Neuro , neuroscience podcast
A Todo Neuro · Podcast · SfN Award 2024

A Todo Neuro

An award-winning neuroscience podcast for the Argentine Society of Neuroscience. Won the SfN Next Generation Award in 2024.

Music · Composition · Multi-instrument

Music portfolio

Original songs across genres , writing, recording, playing several instruments. Personal and collaborative projects.

Blog

Thinking out loud

A space where I write, slowly and at length, about AI, science, and the ideas in between , more personal and exploratory than anything else on this site.

mneuronico blog

08 Teaching

∞ All projects

What is AI? · Book Zebrafish · PhD thesis Consciousness · Mind map concept-probe · Library MAS · Multi-agent library CasanChef · CasanCrem Look-IA-te · Sedal Delta+ · El Perro en la Luna VIA · Agency VIA Studio · Workspace Argentina Explicada Personal Assistant Language Learning noticIAs Life Dashboard Health Dashboard Pauli Bakes Kabradepata · Kids music Anda Calabaza · Anthem SpotifAI · AI music Music portfolio A Todo Neuro · Podcast Xplora · Sci-comms Psico Progreso Emperatriz · Yoga site