Auli Viidalepp is a Research Fellow in Semiotics at the University of Tartu (Estonia) and a Visiting Researcher at the University of Turin (Italy). Currently, she is developing an analytical framework based on cultural semiotics to investigate the impact and functioning of AI-generated media in society (on the example of deepfakes). Her further research interests include the environmental and sociocultural implications of technology and decolonial perspectives seeking to address these issues.
In 2023, she founded a research network called Technosemiotics.
teaching
Technosemiotics (FLSE.00.361, 6 ECTS), an elective MA-level course at the University of Tartu.
selected publications
Viidalepp, Auli; Olteanu, Alin (2025). Les avenirs technologiques en sémiotique: Retour sur l’année 2024. Semiotica 267: 225–241. DOI: 10.1515/sem-2025-0243.
Viidalepp, Auli (2025). Apotheosis, apocalypse, and the epistemic collapse: technology and the fear of future. — Through the Lens of Dread: Exploring the Meaning-Making of Fear in the Mediasphere, edited by Merit Maran, Andreas Ventsel, Mari-Liis Madisson. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 308–341.
Viidalepp, Auli (2025). Artificial intelligence as a filter and as a philter. In: Piluso, Francesco and Leone, Massimo (eds.) Semiotica dei filtri. I saggi di Lexia 60. Rome: Aracne, 119-134.
selected conference presentations
28.11.2025. The use of generative AI in information influence activities. Budapest Workshop on Philosophy and Technology (BudPT25), 27–28 November 2025. doi:10.5281/zenodo.17747981
eesti keeles | in Estonian language
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Viidalepp, Auli (2024). Mida tehisintellekt meile tähendab [What artificial intelligence means to us]. Teater. Muusika. Kino. 10: 106−115.