{"id":784422,"date":"2026-09-27T16:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/784422\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T16:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:34:10","slug":"ai-enlisted-as-woolly-mammoth-revival-timeline-slips-to-2030s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/784422\/","title":{"rendered":"AI enlisted as woolly mammoth revival timeline slips to 2030s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This comeback is turning into a mammoth task for artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences is attempting to revive the hairy elephant ancestor through gene-editing technology and <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/tag\/dna\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DNA<\/a> harvested from remains of a frozen mammoth found in Siberia in 2018.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.41436464;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40997256\" width=\"834\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mammuthus-primigenius-bison-bison-bison-142540795.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of woolly mammoths and bison in a snow-covered field.\" class=\"wp-image-40997256\"\/>The wait to see woolly mammoths stalk the earth will be last a bit longer, as Colossal Biosciences pushes goalposts to the 2030s. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, the company forecast that they would be nursing baby woollies in their labs<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/10\/03\/science\/long-extinct-woolly-mammoth-will-be-brought-back-within-just-4-years-entrepreneur-claims\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> in just four years<\/a> \u2014 but have now announced that the timeline on reconstituting the beloved beasts is being pushed back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thinking it will be in the early 2030s,\u201d Colossal CEO Ben Lamm told TIME.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t have a hard date. Not 2036, but not 2030 either,\u201d he told the outlet.<\/p>\n<p>The company found that the work to edit the genes was more difficult than their similar work on the dire wolf, which they<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/04\/07\/us-news\/dire-wolf-from-game-of-thrones-revived-in-de-extinction-project\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> de-extincted in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Now they believe it will take editing more than 150 genes.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s ears, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50093809;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"40997260\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/hoping-revive-mammoths-scientists-create-142540034.jpg\" alt=\"A person in a lab coat and gloves holds two &quot;woolly mice&quot; in their hands.\" class=\"wp-image-40997260\"\/>These woolly mice were genetic manipulated by Colossal Biosciences to have the same hair gene as the woolly mammoth. Colossal Biosciences<\/p>\n<p>Colossal Biosciences has been successful in producing a family of 38\u00a0woolly mice which were created using the mammoth genetic coding for shaggy hair.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This comeback is turning into a mammoth task for artificial intelligence. Scientists working to de-extinct the woolly mammoth&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2851,733,91271,26896,59,90,14607,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-784422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-animals","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-cloning","tag-elephants","tag-gb","tag-science","tag-scientists","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}