I’m a Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Oslo and the Research Director at Langsikt, a think tank dedicated to improving governance of vexed issues such as AI, biotechnology, global health, climate change, and animal welfare. I’m also an Honorary Research Associate at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and an Affiliated Researcher at the University of Oslo’s Physics Department. I’m currently the PI on an 8 million NOK grant from the Research Council of Norway for the project “Valuing Animals”.

Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University (Government), the University of Oxford (Philosophy), and OsloMet (Health Sciences). I have a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Oslo.

My research interests are at the intersection of philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE). I am particularly interested in how markets can be designed and regulated to achieve fairer and better outcomes, from allocating organs, vaccines, and drugs to improving animal welfare and developing new technologies, including AI. 

Here’s my CV.

Selected work:

• The Ethics of Emergencies, Philosophical Studies w/ Ole Martin Moen
• A Global Redistributive Auction for Vaccine Allocation, Journal of Medical Ethics w/ Peder Skjelbred
• Why States Should Buy Kidneys, Journal of Applied Philosophy
• The Ethics of Sex Robots, The Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics w/ Brian Earp.
• Corporal Punishment, The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Punishment w/ Ole Martin Moen
• What’s Your Price? Three Cheers for Data Markets, in AI Morality
• Ending Animal Cruelty Through Markets, in Routledge Handbook of Commodification
• Prize, not price: reframing rewards for kidney donors, Journal of Medical Ethics
• Ethical solutions to the problem of organ shortage, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics w/ Sadie Regmi and John Harris
• Racial Justice Requires Drug Policy Overhaul, American Journal of Bioethics w/ Brian Earp, John Lewis, Carl Hart et al.
• Sex selection in India: Why a ban is not justified, Developing World Bioethics
• Pedophilia and Computer-Generated Child Pornography, The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy w/ Ole Martin Moen
• Delicate Deals, Ph.D. thesis in Philosophy

Work under review or in progress:

• Silicon slavery, the case against AGI alignment, with Peder Skjelbred
• The AI Transition Problem
• War, Opportunity Costs, and Emergencies, with Fredrik Hjorthen
• The insurance account of pandemic obligations
• Vaccination, Risk, and Beneficence
• Health Priority, Discrimination, and the All-Inclusive View, w/ Albert Didriksen
• Tax Animal Suffering, w/ Asher Soryl
• The (economic) value of animal lives, w/ Rasmus B Holmen

Email: akselbst (at) gmail.com 
Twitter: @AkselSterri
Phone: +47 98039096