Colossal CEO Ben Lamm says humanity has a ‘moral obligation’ to pursue de-extinction tech

The CEO of Colossal, a startup that aims to use genetic editing techniques to bring back extinct species, including the wooly mammoth, assured audiences at SXSW that the company has no plans to create a real-life Jurassic Park — lest there was any doubt. “Modern conservation isn’t working […] and we’re gonna need a ‘de-extinction’ toolkit,” Colossal CEO Ben Lamm said during an onstage interview Sunday in Austin, responding to questions from actor and board member Joe Manganiello. “I think that we have a moral obligation and an ethical obligation to pursue technologies [that] undo some of the things that we [as a species] have done.” Colossal is working to bring back the dodo bird and thylacine, commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger, well as the wooly mammoth, Lamm added. But the de-extinction of dinosaurs wouldn’t be possible due to the lack of usable sources of dinosaur DNA. Dallas-based Colossal, founded in 2023 by Lamm and George Church, has stated that it wants to have woolly ma ... Read full article.