Using large language models to investigate the origin of chronic wasting disease

This use case reports on the impressive output, hallucinations, instability, and limitations of three Large Langue Models (LLMs): ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok.The LLMs were prompted in an investigative sequence and responses checked.The collected information supports the common theory that chronic wasting disease (CWD) in North America originated in 1967 at a research facility in Fort Collins, Colorado, where deer were reported to have been exposed to sheep with a similar disease -scrapie.Findings include that: no sheep with scrapie were detected in the area around Fort Collins prior to 1967; domestic sheep reportedly exposed to scrapie were in the facility; there were medical experiments; Fort Collins was active in the scrapie eradication program; three early infection sites, all linked to Fort Collins, are missing from USGS maps showing the disease history; the recently discovered European CWD cases can be explained by local conditions; scrapie in sheep and deer with CWD symptoms were reported centuries ago in Europe; early models simulating disease history lacked adequate data and detail, and ignored the presence of infected captive herds.The LLMs provided good insight into disease simulation, created simulation models, and generated python code.