Pegah Moradi

How Self-Checkout Is Turning Cashiers Into Cops If you’ve ever used self-checkout, you might’ve heard the kiosk’s robotic voice utter its famous phrase: “Please wait! Help is on the way.”

We've all used self-checkout as customers. But how is it changing jobs for cashiers? Through an interview study for #CSCW2025, @pegahmoradi.bsky.social tells us about how self-checkout can turn cashiers into cops: tinyurl.com/copcashiers-...

If you haven't gotten enough of the autopen, you can check out the paper (with @karenlevy.bsky.social) that my op-ed draws from -- a cult favorite! ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

For @thehill.com, I wrote about what the Biden-Trump autopen controversy can tell us about automation, AI, and trust: thehill.com/opinion/whit...

The Human in the Loop: Pegah Moradi on Automation, Discretion, and the Future of Frontline Work - Siegel Family Endowment Pegah Moradi is a PhD candidate in Information Science at Cornell University, where she studies the social and organizational dimensions of digital automation, with a focus on its impacts on work and ...

I had a great conversation with Madison Snider at Siegel about how various technologies—from complex AI tools to basic self checkout—are changing the nature of service jobs for millions of Americans 🛒 Give it a read to learn more about my recent work! :)
www.siegelendowment.org/insights/the...

this is literally my superbowl

but that doesn't mean it wasn't ever controversial (and perhaps always has been!), per my paper with @karenlevy.bsky.social on what the autopen can tell us about values embedded in digital replication :) ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

The Heritage Foundation-backed "Oversight Project" pointing out that Biden used an autopen to sign a number of documents *would* be damning...if it wasn't the case that nearly every president since JFK has done the same

Bring AI Governance to Competitive Grants To tackle AI risks in grant spending, grant-making agencies should adopt trustworthy AI practices in their grant competitions and start enforcing them against reckless grantees.

A coming flood of federal grant proposals will claim AI makes projects cheaper & better. Many will be empty promises. This admin needs to place the best bets it can on AI.

For the Federation of American Scientists' Day One Project, my memo on AI grant governance
fas.org/publication/...

Pseudo-Automation: How Labor-Offsetting Technologies Reconfigure Roles and Relationships in Frontline Retail Work Self-service machines are a form of pseudo-automation; rather than actually automate tasks, they offset them to unpaid customers. Typically implemented for customer convenience and to reduce labor cos...

…and the *corrected* link is here :-) arxiv.org/abs/2410.02888

oh no…embarrassing!! this is the correct link (thanks Mike!): arxiv.org/pdf/2410.02888

My paper (with @karenlevy.bsky.social and Cristobal Cheyre!) on how self-checkout deepens these relational demands for cashiers is forthcoming in @acm-cscw.bsky.social 2025 :)

🔗 Link here: arxiv.org/pdf/2401.00205

I spoke with @annlarson.bsky.social about how store tech can increase demands on frontline retail workers, for her latest in The Nation!

Workers often have to make shoppers feel better when store tech frustrates or confuses them, making retail work more socially and relationally demanding: