Woolly mammoth to be resurrected with the help of AI: scientists

This comeback is turning into a mammoth task for artificial intelligence.Scientists working to de-extinct the woolly mammoth report that the project is taking longer than expected and are relying on AI to solve the 4,000-year-old problem.Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences is attempting to revive the hairy elephant ancestor through gene-editing technology and DNA harvested from remains of a frozen mammoth found in Siberia in 2018.In 2024, the company forecast that they would be nursing baby woollies in their labs in just four years — but have now announced that the timeline on reconstituting the beloved beasts is being pushed back.“We are thinking it will be in the early 2030s,” Colossal CEO Ben Lamm told TIME.“We don’t have a hard date.Not 2036, but not 2030 either,” he told the outlet.The company found that the work to edit the genes was more difficult than their similar work on the dire wolf, which they de-extincted in 2025.Initially, the company believed that they could edit only about 60 genes of an elephant nucleus to turn it into a mammoth nucleus that would then go on to become a mammoth embryo, the outlet reported.Now they believe it will take editing more than 150 genes.The ongoing research has derived information about the genetic code for elephants and mammoths, including discovering the genes which would control the size of the mammoth’s ears, the outlet reported.Colossal Biosciences has been successful in producing a family of 38 woolly mice which were created using the mammoth genetic coding for shaggy hair.The company is using AI and CRISPR gene-editing technology in all of their projects which include the flightless dodo bird, the Tasmanian tiger, and emu-like moa....