The story begins with a man fixated on the idea of a German Shepherd, which was first bred for its wolf-like appearance and obedience as a worker. He is less invested in the dog as an animal as he is in the dog as a symbol of loyalty and obedience, always valuable traits under an authoritarian regime. He is also interested in tinkering with the dogs to hone them as weapons of war.
I am speaking, of course, of the American entrepreneur Ben Lamm, one of the founders of the new defense technology company Warhound, which has raised $200 million in funding to create genetically modified dogs for the U.S. military, and law enforcement. The promotional art for Warhound is laughably fascist, featuring several German shepherds garbed like Tier 1 operators. They wear tactical vests and protective sunglasses and helmets. Two of the dogs are totally white for reasons that are unclear but also unsettling.
I've written about Ben Lamm before and the gripes I have with his most famous startup, Colossal Biosciences, which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in ostensible pursuit of its promise to "de-extinct" the mammoth and other flashy prehistorics despite being dishonest about what "de-extinction" really means. Although I did not predict Colossal's next outlandish project would rise to the bar of "genetically-modified murder dogs," I can't say I'm surprised. In classic Colossal fashion, these war dogs do not exist yet. Also in classic Colossal fashion, the company has promised a short timeline: puppies early next year and dogs in military service in two years.
The idea came to Lamm and co-founder Palmer Luckey, the unnervingly goateed co-founder of the technofascist defense technology company Anduril, when the two met at a conference, per TechCrunch. Lamm learned several facts about military dogs that are presented in the press release to justify the creation of GMO war dogs, including that more than 80 percent of the dogs that serve in the U.S. military come from Eastern Europe and only around half make it through training. Most of these dogs are German shepherds, although some other breeds, such as the short-haired Belgian shepherds known as Malinois, and Labradors, are used. Lamm told TechCrunch that "many of them do not make it through training because of inherited predispositions to problems like poor eyesight or the high possibilities of cancer, hip dysplasia, or muscle atrophy," facts that do not appear to be specific to military dogs but rather purebred dogs in general. But dogs are also disqualified for behavioral reasons that may be less easily mapped onto genes, such as a lack of drive or an unwillingness to bite.
What kind of war dog does Lamm have in mind? He told TechCrunch that he would like to breed canines for health, longevity, and "for things like speed and agility or enhance olfactory sensors for bomb sniffing and whatnot." The Colossal team plans to create and clone a whole new dog, taking cells from the German Shepherd and the Belgian Malinois. I suppose Colossal has at least proven its ability to make a vaguely altered canine.
The idea here is that these enhanced canines would be more likely to make it through training, limiting the number of dogs that are currently trained that end up being adopted to families. Sure. But obviously Lamm is not the first person to come up with the idea of breeding a dog for health and longevity. Within veterinary medicine, dogs and their diseases are much more intensively studied than cats, in part due to the abundance of breeds and their beloved societal role. This is to say, if it were easy to make a purebred dog that doesn't get cancer, or health issues more broadly, researchers would have done it already.
So that's Colossal's contribution. What is Anduril's? The defense technology company will provide "software and hardware," which appears to be the tactical fashion donned by the dogs in the Warhound promotional art. This gear could look like bulletproof vests and goggles or sensors that transmit information about the dog. Sure. So what Warhound is pitching is a designer dog with a bespoke fit.
Luckey is not an owner and does not own equity in Warhound. Lamm will be on the company's board, and Colossal has an ownership stake. But the company will be run by its CEO, Dave Spirk, a man who previously worked for Palantir and the Department of Defense and who has been described as a "war transformer." Warhound's press release notes that the American Humane Society will certify the war dogs' training programs and has given its stamp of approval to the endeavor. But the Humane Society does not appear to be overseeing the actual cloning process, a process rife with welfare issues, as cloned animals often are born with severe health issues and surrogate animals face increased risks during pregnancy.
"If we're going to ask man's best friend to protect America, we owe it to them to use every tool at our disposal to protect them, too," Lamm said in the press release. I would argue that genetically modifying another individual to send into a war they cannot understand is not the way any man should treat his best friend. It is interesting to know that some people look at an animal we have domesticated and think not of its particular sentience or welfare or experience but rather how we might shape it into a more lethal weapon. It is enriching to realize the many new ways people can disgust me.
I find one thread of comfort. If Colossal's track record is to be trusted, the company's war dogs will be war dogs in the way their dire wolves were dire wolves, which is to say, not at all. Whatever underwhelming dogs that might be created will almost certainly not be rolled out on the two-year timeline Lamm has promised. The idea probably only exists so that Colossal can do what it was primarily designed to do, which is not to de-extinct mammoths but rather to extract venture capital dollars. This is honestly for the best. Perhaps it is also for the best that Lamm no longer feels the need to pretend that Colossal cares about things like "rewilding" or "restoring grasslands" or "combating climate change." It's all out in the open now. I do worry, though, that Colossal is still building up to its endgoal. In a few years, when Colossal pitches the War Mammoth, just know that you were warned.
