Marissa Kumar Gerchick

Co-Opting AI Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.

Many thanks to Michelle Lipinski and Mona Sloane for their guidance and wisdom throughout the process! You can learn more about the series below. (As a disclaimer, I’m authoring this work in my personal capacity, not affiliated with my work at the ACLU). www.ucpress.edu/series/co-op...

I’ve decided to share some of these reflections now, in the hopes that they may resonate with others, on a substack where I'll reflect on the process of writing about AI right now and stories on how AI and women's sports are intersecting. The first piece is up now and I’d love to hear your thoughts!

At several points in the process, I considered abandoning the project as I grappled with bouts of “AI-induced imposter syndrome,” wrestling with the tradeoffs of spending time and energy writing a book at a time when the world’s relationship to writing feels like it is rapidly changing.

What started as a determined fan trying to make sense of an outcome I didn't like became a much deeper exploration of how AI is shaping the ways women's sports are played, watched, and refereed. And now, I’m excited to share that exploration has turned into a book project.

As a researcher who studies the societal impacts of AI, and a huge USWNT fan, I channeled my heartbreak into a familiar method: a deep dive into the underlying technology, how it was designed, deployed, and evaluated.

The margin, arguably unseeable to the human eye, was nonetheless legible to the automated goal line-technology used to make the deciding call.

One morning in August 2023, I woke up at 4 AM to watch the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team face Sweden in the Women's World Cup. The deciding penalty that eliminated the U.S., a strike initially swatted down by the goalkeeper, was ruled to have crossed the goal line by a matter of millimeters.

On Grappling with AI-Induced Imposter Syndrome In the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the United States Women’s National Soccer Team faced their earliest exit from the tournament in the team’s history.

Personal update: I’m writing a book about how AI is impacting women’s sports, as part of the Co-Opting AI Series with the University of California Press! More context here and below:🧵 keepthescore.substack.com/p/on-grappli...

ICE’s Facial Recognition App Misidentified a Woman. Twice In testimony from a CBP official obtained by 404 Media, the official described how Mobile Fortify returned two different names after scanning a woman's face during an immigration raid. ICE has said th...

One of the first things anyone learns about facial recognition is that it is often wrong and that it is biased. And yet ICE is using it all day every day to determine legal status & who to detain. And now we have a high-profile example of it being flat out wrong:

www.404media.co/ices-facial-...

Making Sense of AI Policy Using Computational Tools | TechPolicy.Press A new report examines how to use computational tools to evaluate policy, with AI policy as a case study.

We released a new report in partnership with the Center for Tech Responsibility at Brown University on how policymakers and researchers can better analyze AI legislation to protect our civil rights and liberties.

a recent New York State audit of NYC's Local Law 144 — designed to ostensibly regulate potential bias and discrimination in automated employment tools — is fairly scathing in its assessment of how implementation and enforcement of the law is going.

simply put, LL 144 does not work.

TELL MASSACHUSETTS LAWMAKERS: SUPPORT THE LOCATION SHIELD ACT IN 2025 Please take action!

You can take action right now, if you live in Massachusetts. Doing this takes less than one minute and will make a significant impact. Do it now. action.aclu.org/send-message...

Headline: ProPublica management wants 100% discretion over when and how to use AI Supplementary text: The organization rejected our proposal that ensures staff will not be replaced by AI and requires labeling AI-generated content

1/ At bargaining yesterday, @propublica.org management said that they should have 100% discretion to replace workers with AI and would not commit to labeling future AI-generated content.

Was really challenging to participate in this, but I think I was able to pen something real, important, and personal to my experience in AI. Remember that GenAI is not *all* of AI nor all of what it should be.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/15/1...

A few more I came across today that look interesting!

Chief AI Officer at the State of IL: illinois.jobs2web.com/job/Springfi...

Senior PM at the MBTA: www.governmentjobs.com/careers/mbta...

The Center for Civic Futures has several roles open: digitalharborfoundation.applytojob.com/apply/

Careers at ACLU Join our team! We’re looking for committed, passionate people for open roles at the ACLU.

And we have lots of open roles at ACLU, including roles on our Technology Team: www.aclu.org/careers/

Careers — Code for America Our team is made up of empathetic people working side by side with communities and government to solve society's toughest problems

Lots of new roles just went up at Code for America! codeforamerica.org/jobs/

Started a thread in the other place and bringing it over here - I really think we should be more vocal about the opportunities that lay at the intersection of these two options!

So I'm starting a live thread of new roles as I become aware of them - feel free to add / extend / share :

AI startup Friend spent more than $1M on all those subway ads | TechCrunch If you’ve been on the New York subway recently, you’ve probably seen stark white ads promoting a wearable AI device called Friend.

A reminder that anything recorded on a device like this AI "friend" could be used against you — by hackers, private companies, or the government.

This technology isn't a friend, it's surveillance.

Phone Searches at the US Border Hit a Record High Customs and Border Protection agents searched nearly 15,000 devices from April through June of this year, a nearly 17 percent spike over the previous three-month high in 2022. "The real issue is the chilling...

Customs and Border Protection agents searched nearly 15,000 devices from April through June of this year, a nearly 17 percent spike over the previous three-month high in 2022. "The real issue is the chilling effect it has on all travelers."

Court blocks Trump admin's anti-LGBTQ+ restrictions on grants for domestic violence and homeless shelters The order comes in a lawsuit brought by a nationwide coalition of groups serving survivors of domestic and sexual violence, LGBTQ+ youth, and people experiencing homelessness.

After @riaclu.bsky.social sued, a judge blocked the Trump administration from imposing ideological restrictions on federal grant recipients who serve domestic violence survivors, LGBTQ youth, and unhoused people.

These organizations can continue their critical work without political interference.

As AI Gains Power, We Must Push for Guardrails to Protect Civil Liberties | ACLU As AI increasingly makes decisions in hiring, policing, and social services, the ACLU’s Civil Rights in the Digital Age Summit focuses on promoting responsible AI design to ensure technology protects ...

The use of AI shouldn’t come at the expense of our civil liberties.

At the ACLU’s first-ever Civil Rights in the Digital Age AI Summit, we’re considering ways to leverage emerging technology as an asset, while safeguarding our civil rights.

Gerchick et al: Auditing the Audits: Lessons for Algorithmic Accountability from Local Law 144's Bias Audits
#FAccT2025

title slide for tutorial presentation reading "public interest tech (pit) clinics as applied sociotechnical pedagogy: practice tutorial, FAccT 2025, Athens, Greece; by Lauren M. Chambers and Diag Davenport, UC Berkeley, June 25, 2025."

getting excited for my #FAccT2025 tutorial - today 5 pm Athens time!

I'm sharing new work with @berkeleyischool.bsky.social's awesome Prof. Diag Davenport: "Public Interest Tech (PIT) Clinics as Applied Sociotechnical Pedagogy."

the idea: bring real-world experience & impact into tech education 💫

❤️❤️❤️

We’re here at the airport as Mahmoud Khalil returns home after over 100 days of being unjustly detained for his advocacy for Palestinian rights.

Welcome home, Mahmoud! ❤️

And also excited to share our tutorial — on ACLU’s approach to evaluating generative AI’s implications for our work — with @techforimpact.bsky.social @bmad.bsky.social Ranya Ahmed and Evani Radiya-Dixit, also on Wednesday, at 5 PM Athens time programs.sigchi.org/facct/2025/p...

This work was the product of an amazing collaboration across civil society and academia — with a stellar team including @rone.bsky.social and @metaxa.net (Penn HCI), Cole Tanigawa-Lau (Stanford), Lena Armstrong (Harvard) and Ana Gutiérrez (my colleague at ACLU!)

Excited to be at #FAccT2025 and honored to see our work “auditing the audits” resulting from one of the first enacted AI laws in the U.S. received an honorable mention! I’ll be presenting this work on Wednesday at 11 AM Athens time: programs.sigchi.org/facct/2025/p...

Some results from this paper: trans people, nonbinary people, and disabled people (especially neurodivergent people and people with mental health conditions) have more negative views towards AI than the general US population.
#FAccT2025