Each year a small portion of AoIR conference fees go toward several Kelly Quinn Travel Scholarships for junior scholars to attend the conference. We want to recognize our scholarship recipients and share with you a little bit about them and their research interests.
Who are you?
I am a Brazilian researcher driven by curiosity and passionate about people. I am fascinated by the process of knowledge construction and by communication. I was born 16 years before Google, I am a cat person, and I love living new experiences.
I am currently in the final stage of my PhD in Communication at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), focusing on generative Artificial Intelligence and Communication Theory. My academic background includes a bachelor’s degree in Advertising, a master’s degree in Communication and Citizenship, and an MBA in Marketing.
Where are you from?
I was born in the capital of Brazil. I live in Goiânia, the capital of the state of Goiás, in the Midwest of Brazil – about 200 km from Brasília. I live in what we call the heart of Brazil, the Brazilian cerrado – an ecosystem with a hot and dry climate, similar to a savanna, but denser in vegetation.
What is your current area of study?
I study Communication and Artificial Intelligence, with a particular focus on investigating the communicational dimensions of human-machine interaction.
Describe the research you will present at AoIR2025.
At AoIR 2025, I will present the preliminary findings of my doctoral research, which examines how interactions mediated by generative artificial intelligence (AI), particularly large language models such as ChatGPT, challenge and reconfigure fundamental notions of Communication Theory. These systems are increasingly present in everyday life, simulating dialogue, advising, creating narratives, and even expressing affection. Yet they lack consciousness, intentionality, and lived experience, raising a central question: can such exchanges be considered communication, or are they a form of “near-communication”: a simulation of dialogue without fulfilling the conditions of human interaction?
My study adopts a metatheoretical approach, combining three main traditions: Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Social Systems, which defines communication as an autopoietic operation distinct from psychic and machinic systems; perspectives from Noam Chomsky and Manuel Castells, which address the computational architecture of language and the networked structures of the information age; and Latin American theories of mediation, particularly Jesús Martín-Barbero and José Luiz Braga, which emphasize the precedence of communication over language. Maturana and Varela’s notion of structural coupling further supports the argument that AI is a machinic system coupled to, but not part of, the social system.
Generative AI must also be understood within the wider algorithmic ecosystem. Tarleton Gillespie highlights algorithms as curators of visibility and relevance, while Shoshana Zuboff situates them in the logic of surveillance capitalism. Jonathan Pace, Evelyn Ruppert, Engin Isin, and Didier Bigo show how digital capitalism and data politics turn algorithms into instruments of economic and political power, and Jenna Burrell with Marion Fourcade describe a “society of algorithms” where classification and stratification are automated.
Preliminary findings suggest that AI reproduces some features of human dialogue – turn-taking, responsiveness, contextual adaptation—yet fails to achieve mutual recognition or shared intentionality. In this sense, Elena Esposito’s argument that algorithms organize expectations rather than produce knowledge helps explain how AI generates communicational effects without actually communicating.
By theorizing AI as structurally coupled but non-communicative, this research clarifies tensions across traditions, expands the epistemological scope of Communication Theory, and offers new categories for analyzing quasi-communicative processes. It also contributes practical insights for fields such as education, media, and civic life, where generative AI already acts as tutor, consultant, and co-creator.
Have you presented at AoIR in the past? If so, what was your experience? If #AoIR2025 in Niterói is your first AoIR conference, what made you choose this conference? What do you expect from it?
This is my first time participating in AoIR, and I’m very excited. I’ve been participating in online discussions since I was a student of the Internet, and AoIR publications have always been a relevant reference for my studies. I always dreamed of participating, but unfortunately, I didn’t have the financial means before. Now that the event is taking place in Brazil, and thanks to the Kelly Quinn Travel Scholarship, I’ll be able to fulfill this dream and welcome the world’s most interesting researchers to my country. I hope it will be a transformative event that broadens my horizons and allows for immeasurable connections and knowledge.
