Fartein is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, where he also completed his Master’s degree. His academic path includes an extensive ethnographic study in Iceland, focusing on neopaganism. His master’s thesis, "A New Age for Old Gods: An Ethnographic Study of Ásatrúarfélagið in Iceland," investigated how modernity and technological change influence the revival of pagan beliefs in Iceland and the wider Euro-American region.

For his PhD, Fartein is now studying the social and cultural impacts of generative and conversational Artificial Intelligence in the United States, specifically within California’s AI industry. His research examines how AI technologies shape new forms of life, kinship, and concepts of personhood. With a particular focus on digital afterlife technologies, AI companions, and virtual humans, Fartein investigates how AI is percieved as a new form of life and the ways it enables distinct life practices and relationships. His analysis integrates perspectives from digital anthropology and cyborg anthropology, situating AI as both a life form and a facilitator of specific forms of life.

Fartein’s research interests cover a range of topics, including the Anthropology of Technology, the Anthropology of Life, digital technologies, Artificial Intelligence, and New Religious Movements. By combining these areas, his work explores the ways technology shapes and is shaped by human culture.

Podcast

"It's Not Just In Your Head" #113: Immortality and Cyborg Anthropology (feat. William Dawley and Fartein Nilsen)

"Antrohalvtimen" #12: Liv og død i møte med teknologi

"Anthropology on Air" #14: Technoscience & the limits of life w/ Martin Eggen Mogseth & Fartein Hauan Nilsen

Newspaper articles

"Chatbotar langt frå så avanserte som ChatGPT kan skape sterke kjensler" (Morgenbladet)

"Jo, du kan vere ven med ein robot" (Morgenbladet)

SANT100: Invitasjon til sosialantropologi (2024)

SANT102: Sosialt liv i globalt perspektiv  (recurring guest lecturer in 2022 and 2023)

SANT280-10: Current Anthropological Research: New Technologies and the Future of the Human (guest lecturer)

Lecture

• Fartein Hauan Nilsen (2023). Apokalypse: Science-fiction eller virkelighet?. (external link)
• Fartein Hauan Nilsen (2021). Ghosts in the machine: A study of “digital immortality” technologies and their effect on conceptions of personhood, kinship and life after death in the US. (external link)

Conference lecture

• Fartein Hauan Nilsen (2023). Navigating Digital Intimacies: Relationships with, through, and around Large Language Models. (external link)
• Fartein Hauan Nilsen (2023). The Machine that Loved Me: Some social implications of virtual humans and digital companions. (external link)
• Fartein Hauan Nilsen (2022). AI companions and the Future of the Social. (external link)
• Fartein Hauan Nilsen (2021). Ghosts in the machine?. (external link)

Media feature article

• Fartein Hauan Nilsen (2022). Chatbotar langt frå så avansert som ChatGPT, kan skape sterke kjensler. (external link)

Academic book chapter

• Fartein Hauan Nilsen (2024). Chapter 6 Virtual Ancestralization: A Glimpse into the Field of Digital Afterlives and Virtual Humans in the US. (external link)

Radio or TV participation

• Fartein Hauan Nilsen; Martin Eggen Mogseth (2022). 12. Liv og død i møte med teknologi. (external link)
• Fartein Hauan Nilsen; William Christopher Dawley (2022). #113: Immortality and Cyborg Anthropology (ft. William Dawley and Fartein Nilsen). (external link)

Book anthology

• Martin Eggen Mogseth; Fartein Hauan Nilsen (2024). Limits of Life Reflections on Life, Death, and the Body in the Age of Technoscience. (external link)

Other presentation

• Jill Walker Rettberg; Fartein Hauan Nilsen; Sondre Bolland (2026). Paneldebatt: Hvilken plass har Kunstig intelligens I Kunnskapsarbeid og studer?. (external link)

Podcast

• Håkon Fyhn; Fartein Hauan Nilsen; Marie Opdal Ulset (2026). Anthropology and AI: Knowledge, Truth, and the Human after LLMs – Digital panel discussion - Norsk antropologisk forening. (external link)

Master’s thesis

• Fartein Hauan Nilsen (2020). Ei ny tid for gamle gudar: ein etnografisk studie av Ásatrúarfélagið på Island. (external link)

Popular science article

• Fartein Hauan Nilsen (2020). Kvifor vert folk ásatrúarmenn?. (external link)

Media interview

• Sadie Elizabeth Hale; Sidsel Marie Henriksen; Martin Eggen Mogseth et al. (2024). Technoscience and the limits of life, w/Martin Eggen Mogseth and Fartein Hauan Nilsen. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Fartein's current project, formerly titled "Ghosts in the Machine: A Study of Digital Immortality and its Impact on Kinship, Personhood, and Life After Death in the US," is part of the broader "Technoscientific Immortality: A Study of Human Futures" research initiative at the University of Bergen. The project has been renamed "The Affective Machine: An Ethnographic study of chatbots in the United States," reflecting a subtle shift from a focus on death and funerary customs to a broader theoretical exploration of anthropological theories regarding kinship and technology.