Mark Torres

I study how AI and social media algorithms interact with human psychology and sociology to shape social learning online. As a research engineer, I build large-scale data systems, AI-driven simulations, and LLM-based methods to understand and redesign digital environments for healthier discourse. I also consult with teams on shipping real-world AI systems as well as building AI agents and tools that drive value.

My name is Mark, an AI engineer, researcher, and systems builder. As a research engineer, I combine social sciences with AI tools, AI agents, and large-scale algorithms to study social media platforms and computationally redesign them to promote healthier discourse. In parallel, I work at the intersection of AI research and methodology, developing and evaluating large language models as tools for computational social science. Outside academia, I also consult with teams across industries, helping startups, researchers, and organizations turn AI ideas into working systems. I believe the future of AI isn’t about replacing human judgment, but about amplifying us through human-AI workflows that allow us to use the best of both worlds to solve real-world problems.

Current: Lead AI Engineer @Northwestern (2023-present)Permalink

Building applied AI systems for social media research and computational social science.

  • Leading development of an AI agent simulation platform to study information flow, opinion dynamics, and influence on digital platforms, akin to a “custom Facebook social network simulator, but with AI users interacting instead of people”.
  • Creating open-source tools that provide scalable, reproducible access to millions of social media records for research teams studying behavior, ideology, and discourse online.
  • Designing and prototyping large-scale, AI-driven feed ranking algorithms for experimental studies in political and social influence.
  • Built and maintained production data infrastructure ingesting and processing millions of social media records for academic research, including real-time data pipelines, ML inference services, and feed ranking algorithms that power multiple lab studies.
  • Bridging ML engineering with academic research by owning data pipelines, modeling infrastructure, and real-time recommendation engines used across lab projects.

Current: AI consulting (2024-present)Permalink

  • Built and shipped an AI Sports Broadcaster browser extension that adds a live, talking AI commentator on top of real games, reacting in real time to what fans are watching.​ Powered by OpenAI and WebRTC. Designed as a next-generation fan engagement and sports media product, combining personalized AI play-by-play, debate-style “hot takes,” and prediction modes that turn any stream on ESPN, MLB, and more into an interactive, on-demand broadcast experience. Prototype link here.
  • Built an AI agent workflow that automatically monitors marketing campaign performance and sends natural-language alerts when performance drops are detected. Demonstrates workflow automation, integrating n8n, OpenAI GPT-4, and email/Slack for real-time business intelligence. Opened-sourced a simplified demo here
  • Developed an AI agent workflow that automates the entire lead-to-meeting pipeline: real-time lead qualification (90%+ routing accuracy), automated CRM updates (<30s latency), and intelligent meeting scheduling. The system reduced response time from hours to under 10 minutes and converted 42% of routed leads to scheduled calls. Open-sourced a simplified demo here
  • Built an AI copywriting agent that generates customized marketing copy by analyzing a customer’s existing branding and messaging. The system maintains brand voice consistency while producing tailored content for campaigns, reducing content creation time while ensuring alignment with brand guidelines. Open-sourced a simplified demo here
  • Collaborated with AI researchers and engineers at frontier labs to review model outputs, curate training data, and iterate on improvements to model evaluation related to agents and agentic coding products. Received beta access to unreleased AI models to help shape fine-tuning artifacts.

Previous: Data Scientist @SetSail (Series A startup) (2021-2023)Permalink

  • Built production NLP models for automated entity extraction and insight generation from sales communications (emails, call transcripts), enabling real-time analysis of thousands of conversations.
  • Architected agentic AI systems that integrated with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoom, and Microsoft/Google ecosystems, automatically surfacing strategic insights from multi-channel sales data.
  • Developed ML-powered sentiment analysis models that analyzed prospect buying intent signals across email and call data, directly supporting revenue operations and pipeline forecasting.
  • Built predictive models for automated sales signal detection and deal scoring, using ML to identify high-probability revenue opportunities from patterns in sales activity data and customer engagement behaviors.
  • Developed behavioral scoring models that analyzed rep activity patterns (email frequency, meeting cadence, stakeholder engagement depth) to predict deal outcomes and identify deals at risk, directly informing sales strategy adjustments.

Previous: Data Scientist @Yale (2020-2021)Permalink

  • Developed a proprietary predictive algorithm for tracking the spread and incidence of COVID using network graph data (see Hunala). Served to tens of thousands of daily active users
  • Worked on large-scale deep learning models for identifying single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the human genome.

Published a few papers here and therePermalink

My Google Scholar Profile.

  • Brady, W.J., Doyle, M, Elnakouri, A., Finkel, E., Jackson, J.C., Kteily, N., Parker, V., Puryear, C., Spelman, T. , Teeny, J., & Torres, M. (In Principle Acceptance; registered report). Redesigning algorithms to intervene on social norm misperceptions during a national election. Nature.
  • Brady, W.J., McLoughlin, K.L., Torres, M.P. et al. Overperception of moral outrage in online social networks inflates beliefs about intergroup hostility. Nat Hum Behav 7, 917–927 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01582-0
  • Iwamoto, S.K., Alexander, M., Torres, M. et al. Mindfulness Meditation Activates Altruism. Sci Rep 10, 6511 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62652-1

EducationPermalink

  • MS, Computer Science, @UT Austin
  • BS, Statistics, @Yale
  • Certificate, Mrs. Puff’s Boating School

Et ceteraPermalink

I am a former digital nomad, now based out of Chicago.