[9] He is notable for his work on cognitively-inspired computational models of categorization integrating both prototypes and exemplars based strategies through the combination of Peter Gärdenfors conceptual spaces with large scale Description Logics ontologies like Cyc.
[10] He is also notable for the proposal of the Minimal Cognitive Grid as a methodological tool to rank the explanatory power of biologically and cognitively inspired artificial systems,[11][12] and for the invention, with Gian Luca Pozzato, of a cognitively-inspired probabilistic description logics known as TCL (Typicality-based Compositional Logic) used for automated human-like knowledge invention and generation via conceptual blending and combination.
[14] A 2021 report by the Rand Corporation has confirmed this insight by showing that the use of logical fallacies proposed by Lieto and Vernero is one of the rhetorical strategies for automated persuasion used by the Russian agents to influence the online discourse and spread subversive information in Europe.
[20] He is deputy editor-in-chief of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence,[21] member of the scientific board of the journal Cognitive Systems Research (Elsevier)[22] and member of Technical Committee on Cognitive Robotics of the IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
[23] Since January 2024 he is an elected member of the Scientific Board of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA)[24]