Ben LammWhy We're Living in a Biological Singularity With Ben Lamm | MOONSHOTS Live #297

Ben Lamm founded Colossal, now valued at over $10 billion, to pursue de-extinction and synthetic biology despite having no prior background in the field. He argues that his lack of expertise was actually advantageous, allowing him to hire smarter experts and ask unconventional questions that sometimes lead to novel insights. His approach centers on surrounding himself with world-class talent, including Harvard's George Church, described as the father of synthetic biology.

The company is pursuing multiple projects beyond the famous woolly mammoth revival, including dire wolves, Tasmanian tigers (thylacines), and artificial womb technology for mammalian gestation. Lamm explains that within 24 months, Colossal expects to achieve fully extrauterine mammalian birth from conception through delivery without a surrogate mother. He also discusses working on 16 different mammoth genetic lines simultaneously, with plans to eventually restore tens of thousands of mammoths to Arctic tundra ecosystems.

A major focus is using AI and large language models as infrastructure middleware to solve problems in comparative genomics, literature analysis, and experimental design. However, Lamm notes that raw genome sequences alone are insufficient—massive datasets of comparative genomes across evolutionary lineages are needed. He founded AstroMech to develop what he calls "inflectional models" that understand how genomes evolved and why certain traits did or didn't evolve in related species.

The company has made dramatic progress in gene editing capabilities, moving from 20 edits per organism to consistently performing over 300 edits with 90% efficiency, and currently testing designs with 1,000 edits. Lamm predicts that within a decade, the field will reach a point where organisms can be designed through computational tools—essentially "CAD for biology"—allowing rapid synthesis of desired phenotypes.

On ethics, Lamm describes a thoughtful approach involving consultation with indigenous peoples, conservation groups, and consideration of species' ecological roles, educational value, and cultural significance. He emphasizes that Colossal will never apply de-extinction technology to humans, following advice from cryonics pioneer Bob Nelson about avoiding FDA code freeze situations. He positions the work as solving a critical problem: humanity is losing approximately half of all biodiversity in the next 25 years, requiring massive federal and international investment in biorepositories and species backup infrastructure, similar to how digital information is backed up.