The eight-week Introductory Fellowship program teaches participants the core philosophy and cause areas of Effective Altruism alongside a cohort of like-minded students. The program consists of weekly discussion meetings between fellows and facilitators, and equips participants with the information, tools, and support necessary to understand how Effective Altruism approaches solving the most pressing global problems.

Refer to the application form for more information!
Applications close September 28th at midnight.

Join us to participate in the monthly Estimation Game created by Quantified Intuitions! The game consists of working in teams to answer questions with fermi estimates; win points for good estimates and see how your score compares to teams on the leaderboard!

Join us on Friday, September 26th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

Join our first discussion meeting, on the intersection of expected utility, fanaticism, and population ethics! Expect to learn about the weight of minuscule probabilities of catastrophic events, the consideration of suffering metrics as metrics for decision-making, and tangential ideas that are bound to arise during the discussion.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Pascal's Mugging on Lesswrong (3min read)

2. Summary: In Defense of Fanaticism by HaydenW on the EA Forum (7min read)

   1. In Defense of Fanaticism by Hayden Wilkinson (complete paper for those interested)

3. Population Ethics: Introduction & The Total View on Utilitarianism.net(10min read)

4. Shut Up and Divide? by Wei Dai on Lesswrong (2min read)

Join us on Friday, September 19th from 18:00 to 19:00 in room R2-15 of the Redpath Complex.

We're going to be kicking off our programming this semester with a Welcome Back Social, a casual opportunity to meet, catch up, and make introductions while we walk/hike to the Mount-Royal Kondiaronk Belvedere.

Join us on Monday, September 8th, at 18:00pm at the top of McTavish Street!

Interested in learning more about the global movement of Effective Altruism as well as the aims and programs of our club here at McGill?

Come and chat with us at our table during Activities Night, happening from 4pm to 8pm at the Tomlinson Fieldhouse, find us at Table 312!

Interested in learning more about the global movement of Effective Altruism as well as the aims and programs of our club here at McGill?

Come and chat with us at our table during Activities Night, happening from 4pm to 8pm at the Tomlinson Fieldhouse, find us at Table 312!

The eight-week Introductory Fellowship program teaches participants the core philosophy and cause areas of Effective Altruism alongside a cohort of like-minded students. The program consists of weekly discussion meetings between fellows and facilitators, and equips participants with the information, tools, and support necessary to understand how Effective Altruism approaches solving the most pressing global problems.

Refer to the application form for more information!
Applications close September 28th at midnight.

Come and join our last meeting of the semester, we're keeping it light and running a speed updating discussion. The meeting will consist of five minute discussions on a variety of effective altruism oriented topics in order to reflect on what we've learned this semester and update our beliefs!

Join us on Tuesday, April 1st from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library.

Come and participate in the monthly Estimation Game created by Quantified Intuitions, this month's edition is on personality patterns. The game requires that we work in teams to answer estimation questions, win points for good estimates, and see how our scores compare to others on the world leaderboard.

Join the game on Tuesday, March 25th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

Come and join our upcoming discussion meeting about re-evaluating existential nuclear risk in light of recent technological developments in weapons manufacturing, the resurrection of nuclear energy plants, as well as rising global tensions between the nuclear superpowers.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Technological Developments That Could Increase Risks from Nuclear Weapons by MichaelA and WillAldred on the EA Forum (6min read)

2. Japan, South Korea, and Poland Need Nuclear Weapons Immediatelyby Noahpinion (30min read)

3. The World Wants to Triple Nuclear Energy: What Will it Take? by Moniz and Cohen for the Boston Globe (10min read)

4. Countries and Areas Directory by Nuclear Threat Initiative

   1. United-States Nuclear Overview (20min read)

   2. Russia Nuclear Overview (15min read)

   3. China Nuclear Overview  (10min read)

Join us on Tuesday, March 18th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

This week we’re talking about space governance and space-faring civilizations! Join us for an interesting discussion about longtermism, aliens, and potentially the ends of humanity.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Space Governance is Important, Tractable, and Neglected by Tobias Baumann on the EA Forum (8min read)

2. Parfit + Singer + Aliens? by Maxwell Tabbarok for Maximum Progress (20min read)

3. Optimistic Resolution of the Fermi Paradox by Steve6320 on the EA Forum (10min read)

4. Longtermist Implications of Space Faring Civilizations by Maxime Riché on the EA Forum (8min read)

5. Is Space Colonization Desirable? on the EA Forum (3min read)

Join the discussion on Tuesday, March 11th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

Join us for the monthly Estimation Game created by Quantified Intuitions! The game consists of working in teams to answer questions with fermi estimates; win points for good estimates and see how your score compares to teams on the world leaderboard!

Join us on Tuesday, January 25th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library.

Join our discussion meeting on recent AI developments, including reasoning, deepseek, and o1, as well as persistent questions on timelines, alignment, and x-risks!

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. But What is a Neural Network? by 3Blue1Brown (18min watch) *optional, good primer for the not ai-savvy

2. Reinforcement Learning: A Non-Technical Primer on Deepseek and o1 by Alex Chalk (11min read)

3. Teaching AI to Reason: This Year's Most Important Story by Benjamin Todd (20min read)

4. Deliberative AI Alignment by OpenAI (10min read)

5. The Game Board Has Been Flipped: Now's a Good Time to Rethink What You're Doing by LintzA on the EA Forum (15min read)

Join the discussion on Tuesday, February 18th from 6pm to 7pm in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

Come and join our next discussion meeting, about the complexities of development policy for economic growth, and whether economic growth should be prioritized in order to improve wellbeing!

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Economic Growth in Low and Middle Income Countries by O'Keeffe-O'Donovan, Latham-Proença, and Kim for Open Philanthropy (25min read)

2. Rethinking Economic Development by Nathan Nunn at Harvard University (30min read, recommend parsing)

3. Long-Distance Development Policy by Karthik Tadepalli on the EA Forum (13min read)

4. Does Economic Growth Meaningfully Improve Wellbeing? by Vadim Albinsky on the EA Forum (15min read)

Join the discussion on Tuesday, February 11th from 6PM to 7PM in room R2-14 of the Redpath Library.

Join us to discus the importance of understanding heavy-tailed distributions, and the consequences for decision-making and determining priorities.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Heavy-Tails and Altruism: When Your Intuition Fails You by Jan Michelfeit (11min read)

2. On Fat-Tailed Distributions and Suffering-Risks by Magnus Vinding for the Center for Reducing Suffering (10min read)

3. All Moral Decision in Life are on a Heavy-Tailed Distribution by Max Görlitz on the EA Forum (2min read)

4. Unravelling the Mystery of Distributions of Impact by Michael and SoGive on the EA Forum (5min read)

5. *Optional* The Zipf Mystery by VSauce (21min watch)

Join the discussion on Tuesday, February 4th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library.

Interested in learning more about the global movement of Effective Altruism as well as the aims and programs of our club here at McGill?

Come and chat with us at our table during Activities Night, happening from 4pm to 8pm at the University Centre (SSMU Building)!

Come and participate in the monthly Estimation Game created by Quantified Intuitions! The game consists of working in teams to answer questions with fermi estimates; win points for good estimates and see how your score compares to teams on the world leaderboard!

Join us on Tuesday, January 28th from 6PM to 7PM in room R2-14 of the Redpath Library.

Interested in learning more about the global movement of Effective Altruism as well as the aims and programs of our club here at McGill?

Come and chat with us at our table during Activities Night, happening from 4pm to 8pm at the University Centre (SSMU Building)!

Join our upcoming discussion meeting on biosecurity, covering global catastrophic biological risks, promising interventions, as well as clarifying misconceptions! 

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Map of Biosecurity Interventions by James Lin on the EA Forum (4min read)

2. Benefits and Risks of Biosecurity by Tucker Davey for the Future of Life Institute (25min read)

3. Envisioning a World Immune to Global Catastrophic Biological Risks by Carl Shulman for Reflective Disequilibrium (7min read)

4. Anonymous Answers: What are the Biggest Misconceptions About Biosecurity and Pandemic Risks? by Anemone Franz and Tessa Alexanian for 80,000 Hours (25min read)

Join the discussion on Wednesday, January 22nd, from 6pm to 7pm in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

Come and join our first discussion meeting of the semester on the philosophical approach to radical empathy, and how it changes our circle of care, preferences, and/or priorities. 

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Radical Empathy by Holden Karnofsky on the EA Forum (8min read)

2. Really Radical Empathy by MichaelStJules on the EA Forum (11min read)

3. Some Implications of Radical Empathy by MichaelStJules on the EA Forum (8min read)

4. Actualism, Asymmetry, and Extinction by MichaelStJules on the EA Forum (11min read)

Join us on Wednesday, January 15th from 6pm to 7pm in room R2-14 of the Redpath Library.

Come and participate in the November edition of the Estimation Game created by Quantified Intuitions! The game consists of working in teams to answer questions with fermi estimates; win points for good estimates and see how your score compares to teams on the world leaderboard!

Join us on Tuesday, November 26th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-37F of the McLennan Library.

Join our upcoming discussion meeting on the outcome of the American election, the potential consequences for effective altruist cause areas, and the potential issues of construing effective altruism as a political power.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. The Case for Contributing to the American Election with your Time and Money for Make Trump Lose Again (17min read)

2. EA Shouldn't Try to Exercise Direct Political Power by iamasockpuppet on the EA Forum (12min read)

3. Implications of a Trump Administration for AI Policy for AI Safety Newsletter (7min read)

4. The EA Case for Trump for Second Best (15min read)

Join the discussion on Tuesday, November 19th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-37F of the McLennan Library!

Join our discussion meeting on the importance of treating and preventing lead exposure as a global health intervention. Learn about how lead exposure  affects low and middle-income countries, strategies for reducing lead exposure, and the organizations tackling global lead exposure.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Global Lead Exposure Report by Davis Rhys Bernard and Jason Schukraft on the EA Forum

   • Key Takeaways and Executive Summary (10min read)

2. Lead Exposure Action Fund

   • The Issue (10min read)

   • The Plan (5min read)

3. Pure Earth

   • Lead Poisoning: Impacts and Sources (25min read)

4. Lead Exposure Elimination Project

   • Our Projects (5min read)

   • How Much Economic Productivity Does Lead Exposure Cost the World (15min read)

5. USAID Partnership for a Lead Free Future

   • A Lead Free Future Fact Sheet (5min read)

Join the discussion on Tuesday, November 12th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-37F of the McLennan Library!

Attend our Speaker Event and Discussion with Keven Bisson, a PhD candidate in McGill’s Department of Philosophy whose research focuses on longtermism.

The talk will cover the advantages and disadvantages of pursuing graduate studies in order to maximize impact, sharing insights from his own journey, including successfully securing competitive graduate scholarships, and offering advice for those considering postgraduate academics.
In addition, Bisson will discuss his research on longtermism, the landscape of the field, and the ethical implications of longtermism.

Join us on Tuesday, November 5th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-37F of the McLennan library!