Hi! I'm Pegah, a PhD candidate in Information Science at Cornell University, where I study how digital automation and artificial intelligence affect work, organizations, and social life. At Cornell, I am co-advised by Karen Levy and Cristobal Cheyre.
My dissertation focuses on how self-checkout machines and other kinds of retail automation have been changing frontline retail work. Beyond retail, my research on automation and AI has spanned contexts ranging from behavioral advertising to politics to sports to transportation.
My work on automation and labor has been covered in The Nation magazine, Computerworld, and The Cornell Chronicle. My research on behavioral advertising has been cited by former FTC chair Lina Khan, and I have consulted on bills regarding retail technology for members of Congress. The public-interest focus of my research is reflected in its support from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, the Siegel Family Endowment, and the MacArthur Foundation through the Cornell Artificial Intelligence, Policy, and Practice Initiative.
My full CV is available here. You can also connect with me at:
Publications
“Pseudo-Automation: How Labor-Offsetting Technologies Reconfigure Roles and Relationships in Frontline Retail Work.”
Moradi, Pegah, Karen Levy, and Cristobal Cheyre. Proceedings of the ACM: Human Computer Interaction (CSCW), 2025.
“Are There Economic Grounds for Regulating Behavioral Ads?”
Moradi, Pegah, Cristobal Cheyre, and Alessandro Acquisti. Forthcoming in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology, 2025.
"Million Eyes on the 'Robot Umps': The Case for Studying Sports in HRI Through Baseball”
Kamino, Waki, Andrea W Wen-Yi,...,Pegah Moradi,..., Karen Levy, and Malte Jung. Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)., 2025.
"A Fountain Pen Come to Life": The Anxieties of the Autopen.
Moradi, Pegah, and Karen Levy. International Journal of Communication, vol. 18: Forum 1-20. 2024.
The Future of Work in the Age of AI: Displacement or Risk-Shifting?
Moradi, Pegah, and Karen Levy. Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI. 2020.
Other Writing
I occasionally write essays about topics related and unrelated to my academic research. My personal essays have been featured in The Norton Sampler, 9th ed. and have won awards, such as the Knight Institute Expository Writing prize.
I was previously an opinion columnist for The Cornell Daily Sun, where I wrote about personal identity and campus culture. I'm particularly proud of this column—my final one for the Sun.