There are currently a number of large databases containing detailed genetic information on various animal species. These databases are used in conventional animal husbandry, e.g. for breeding cattle, pigs, poultry, fish and shrimp, which also employ artificial intelligence.
However, AI in animal breeding is also of increasing interest to NGT applications. For example, the Roslin Institute (known for creating the cloned sheep ‘Dolly’) at the University of Edinburgh is currently involved in cattle breeding projects where AI is being used to identify regulatory gene variants. AI strategies have been developed for use both in cattle and other livestock species within this context.
Studies and patent applications filed by the US company, Colossal Biosciences, which is seeking to ‘bring back to life’ extinct vertebrates, such as woolly mammoths, dire wolves, dodos and Tasmanian tigers, show where we could be heading. What the company is actually creating (or wants to create) with the help of genetic engineering and AI are genetically engineered versions of existing species, e.g. Asian elephants, grey wolves, South American running birds and marsupial mice.
If, for example, the ‘dire wolf’ escaped into natural grey wolf populations, it could also reproduce. Since it is larger and stronger than its natural counterparts, these wolves and their offspring would have a fitness advantage, and therefore displace the natural populations. Colossal Biosciences projects could thus achieve the exact opposite of their claimed objective. Instead of reviving extinct species, they would simply endanger the survival of existing species.
Publication date / last update:
March 2026