Did ChatGPT Really Cure a Dog's Cancer? It's Complicated
Paul Conyngham, after his dog Rosie was diagnosed with late-stage cancer, used AI tools including ChatGPT and AlphaFold to assist in developing a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine in collaboration with experts at Australian research institutions. ChatGPT helped Conyngham plan the research steps, recommend tissue sequencing, suggest appropriate labs and equipment, and sift through scientific literature. The actual vaccine was designed by Grok, another AI tool, and assembled by human experts like Prof. Palli Thordarson at the UNSW RNA Institute. AlphaFold was used to model a key mutated protein but did not directly design the vaccine. The treatment, which combined the personalized vaccine with a checkpoint inhibitor, extended Rosie's life but was not a full cure. Researchers caution that AI’s role was as an assistant in information gathering rather than in direct therapeutic design, and emphasize that scientific expertise and lab infrastructure remain essential. The case highlights AI’s potential in research support, but stresses that credit for breakthroughs belongs to the scientists and clinicians, not to the AI models themselves.
