use it on strangers

Also, what is the game plan here? To sell GMO exhibits to zoos? To try to do a Jurassic Park, but without dinosaurs?
- Releasing wolves in Yellowstone stabilised the ecosystem there. Releasing direwolves on Wall St might stabilise the economy.
  
  The wolves of wall street?
  
  Might need to make the location change to Pennsylvania Ave for a greater effect.
- They are making game of thrones real. Lots of whores and titties, big ass wolves, religious cults taking over government, zombies, crucifixions, people being eaten by dragons.
  
  No incest? :(
- In an ideal world, it'd be to de-extinct fairly modern things that filled a niche that is no longer being filled. This is far from an ideal world though, and the reason in this world is to make press releases to get people talking about it so they can raise more money while not creating anything of actual value.
  
  Okay let's play that out... Everyone gets excited, they make big strong wolves and get funding... Now what?
  They've got a pack of extra big wolves raised under human care. Do they kill them? Do they sell them? Do they open their own park? Do they just keep them for study? Do they just leave the gate open and let them go?
  
  Probably start with one or a few cool scientists with that original purpose, then by the time it can take life it's gone through the enshittification machine.
- The point is to get people excited so they can get funding to keep developing the technologies that will make this kind of genetic engineering commercially viable
  
  Sure... But now they've got these wolves for the next 14 years
  They can't "reextinct" dire wolves or release them, so they're now in the zoo business one way or the other
- I just watched some youtube video and they were talking about how the CIA and big moneys people are heavily invested in this company. Makes me think they're in it to make genetically modified animals or even people for "national security" or something.
  
  National security? Nah, those ghouls want to live forever.
- Gattaca
  
  This is exactly it. This is just training for children customisation.
- To say they did?
  
  And now they have a pack of XL sized wolves... That's not like making a glow in the dark cat, that's either the main plan or a very big problem

I wouldn't call it de-extinction unless they made something that is 100% identical genetically to the thing they are bringing back.
- And they don't have 100% of the dire wolf DNA sequenced, nor do they have DNA of the dire wolf's extinct ancestor between it and Canis lupus. It's a grey wolf with genes from a dire wolf added in.
  
  Aaand they do not have mtDNA.
- de-extinction ≈ decompilation, apparently
  
  Does that make extinction a form of obfuscation?
- or like, actually looks like what we think they looked, rather than what was depicted in a fictional story

Same question: If a species evolves to adapt to a changed environment, is the original species extinct?
Yes, yes it is. That’s why a species ‘going extinct’ doesn’t always mean that it suddenly died off.
- I think the term for that is chronospecies?

Nah that's a great way to start a conversation

Love this one

Haha ... but seriously ... does it? I don't think so. Now if they brought back that rhino species that just went extinct that would count.

Would they be able to do it with god-like perfection, or would it only be a grey wolf that resembles our idea of dire wolves based only on what we've been able to learn?

most genetic differences happen on the biochemical level, i.e. different hormones and metabolism. superficial appearance is only a (very) small part of what defines a species. so i guess the answer is: not really, no.

They did have the genome, right? Why not just clone that? They could then add mutations in the amount that normally occurs in grey wolf populations to get a sufficiently diverse population going.
- Fill in the gaps with frog DNA
  
  "It's okay, they can't breed in captivity. They're all female."
  Frog DNA: "Not so fast...."