How AI Is Bringing Extinct Animals Back (And What Comes Next) | Ben Lamm (Colossal) | EP #245

Peter Diamandis (0:00)

The idea of bringing back the willy mammoth had been around for a long time. You jump in, take the mantle of CEO. I don't know if you were expecting to do that.

Ben Lamm (0:07)

I was gonna fund it as a side project at first, but then I thought it was just really interesting.

Peter Diamandis (0:13)

So Colossal is a parent company is spinning out a dozen companies, each of which have massive potential.

Ben Lamm (0:19)

Our first biological products company spun out, which was Breaking, which is our plastic degradation company. And so the same system that can bring you a mammoth can also make microbes that can, you know, break the chemical bonds of plastic. I think every company should be an AI company or is an AI company. Without AI, we would not be able to do anything that we're doing.

Peter Diamandis (0:37)

What Ben is building inside of Colossal, being able to design using AI and then build living products.

Ben Lamm (0:46)

Our vision is...

Peter Diamandis (0:50)

Now, that's the Moonshot, ladies and gentlemen. How do you like having Elon as your warm up act?

Ben Lamm (0:57)

Yeah, that's the greatest thing ever.

Peter Diamandis (0:58)

Yeah.

Ben Lamm (0:59)

Yeah, that's pretty awesome. So, man, he loves Bully Mammoth.

Peter Diamandis (1:02)

And he does. He does. And he wants Jurassic Park.

Ben Lamm (1:05)

Yeah. He's not alone. I'm not saying that's for me. I'm just saying that he's not alone.

Peter Diamandis (1:12)

I understand that.

Ben Lamm (1:13)

It's the number one request we get.

Peter Diamandis (1:16)

Yes.

Ben Lamm (1:16)

And then Megalodons is two, which is also really weird.

Peter Diamandis (1:19)

Well, Megalodons are just cool. I mean, they litter their teeth all over the ocean floor.

Ben Lamm (1:23)

They're still scary.

Peter Diamandis (1:24)

That's scary.

Ben Lamm (1:26)

I'm scared enough of the ocean without it.

Peter Diamandis (1:28)

Jaws times 100 So as we're going along here, please use your Slido app to add questions. So I want to first of all, I've known you now since pretty much the beginning of Colossal.

Ben Lamm (1:40)

Yeah, you were like first techs.

Peter Diamandis (1:42)

Yeah.

Ben Lamm (1:43)

First, second techs.

Peter Diamandis (1:44)

And I am such a fan of you as a CEO first and foremost, and then second, the company. The idea of bringing back the wooly mammoth had been around for a long time. It had been played around in nonprofits and so forth. I'm going to summarize. This man meets George Church, one of the greatest synthetic biologists, CRISPR, gene editor, entrepreneur, professor at Harvard Medical School. And you ask him, what's your favorite pet project?

Ben Lamm (2:12)

Yeah, I asked him if he had one project, if he could work on one project for the rest of time with unlimited capital, what would it be? And he didn't hesitate. Like it wasn't like, let me think about it, let me get back to you. And it was just instantly. He's like, I'd worked to bring back mammoths. I'd rewild them back into the ecosystems. And I built technologies that could be applied to saving species and also human health care. Like he just didn't hesitate.

Peter Diamandis (2:34)

So you jump in, you take the mantel of CEO. I don't know if you were expecting to do that.

Ben Lamm (2:41)

I was going to fund it as a side project at first, but then I thought it was just really interesting.

Peter Diamandis (2:45)

You build a company which goes from zero to $10 billion valuation in four years.

Ben Lamm (2:51)

It's massively undervalued. I totally agree with you.

Peter Diamandis (2:54)

Yeah, I love you. And it's just, it's you as the CEO who has done this. You've built an extraordinary team. How big is it? Thank you so much, Val. How big is the team now?

Ben Lamm (3:07)

We have 260 scientists, 200 here in the US and 60 in Australia.

Peter Diamandis (3:12)

And a significant number of AI programmers.

Ben Lamm (3:16)

Yeah, exactly.

Peter Diamandis (3:16)

You've become an AI company.

Ben Lamm (3:17)

Yeah, I think every company should be an AI company or is an AI company. So we feel like the synthetic biology part of our work is really interesting. So we don't always lead with AI, but AI without AI, we would not be able to do anything that we're doing.

Peter Diamandis (3:33)

I want you to think about this. What Ben is building inside of Colossal is a platform and an engine for creating living products. Being able to design using AI and then build living products. Let's talk about the work you're doing in DeXtinction.