mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Next Location Predictors

arXiv 2405.20962 ↗First posted 31 May 2024cs.CY cs.AI cs.CLcited by 22

Not on the map. Why?

Abstract (arXiv)

Predicting the locations an individual will visit in the future is crucial for solving many societal issues like disease diffusion and reduction of pollution. However, next-location predictors require a significant amount of individual-level information that may be scarce or unavailable in some scenarios (e.g., cold-start). Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown good generalization and reasoning capabilities and are rich in geographical knowledge, allowing us to believe that these models can act as zero-shot next-location predictors. We tested more than 15 LLMs on three real-world mobility datasets and we found that LLMs can obtain accuracies up to 36.2%, a significant relative improvement of almost 640% when compared to other models specifically designed for human mobility. We also test for data contamination and explored the possibility of using LLMs as text-based explainers for next-location prediction, showing that, regardless of the model size, LLMs can explain their decision.

Key facts. Cited by 22 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 35 of its 79 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 31 May 2024.

Builds on

35 of 79 references.

References · 35

  1. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
  2. 2023Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Modelscited by 13,028
  3. 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,459
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  8. 2024Gemma: Open Models Based on Gemini Research and Technologycited by 916
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  11. 2023Textbooks Are All You Need II: phi-1.5 technical reportcited by 565
  12. 2023Large Language Models Are Zero-Shot Time Series Forecasterscited by 500
23 more
  1. 2023A Comprehensive Survey on Pretrained Foundation Models: A History from BERT to ChatGPTcited by 368
  2. 2023NLP Evaluation in trouble: On the Need to Measure LLM Data Contamination for each Benchmarkcited by 348
  3. 2021STAN: Spatio-Temporal Attention Network for Next Location Recommendationcited by 102
  4. 2023Where Would I Go Next? Large Language Models as Human Mobility Predictorscited by 93
  5. 2020A Survey on Deep Learning for Human Mobilitycited by 88
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  9. 2023Frozen Language Model Helps ECG Zero-Shot Learningcited by 62
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  12. 2022Leveraging Language Foundation Models for Human Mobility Forecastingcited by 50
  13. 2021MobTCast: Leveraging Auxiliary Trajectory Forecasting for Human Mobility Predictioncited by 48
  14. 2023Data Contamination Quiz: A Tool to Detect and Estimate Contamination in Large Language Modelscited by 47
  15. 2024Large Language Models for Next Point-of-Interest Recommendationcited by 40
  16. 2023On the Promises and Challenges of Multimodal Foundation Models for Geographical, Environmental, Agricultural, and Urban Planning Applicationscited by 15
  17. 2023Metropolitan Scale and Longitudinal Dataset of Anonymized Human Mobility Trajectoriescited by 7
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Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 7; 2025: 11; 2026: 4.

22 papers.

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  1. 2024AgentMove: A Large Language Model based Agentic Framework for Zero-shot Next Location Predictioncited by 25
  2. 2024Toward LLM-Agent-Based Modeling of Transportation Systems: A Conceptual Frameworkcited by 19
  3. 2024LIMP: Large Language Model Enhanced Intent-aware Mobility Predictioncited by 8
  4. 2024ST-MoE-BERT: A Spatial-Temporal Mixture-of-Experts Framework for Long-Term Cross-City Mobility Predictioncited by 7
  5. 2024NextLocLLM: Location Semantics Modeling and Coordinate-Based Next Location Prediction with LLMscited by 5
  6. 2024TrajAgent: An LLM-Agent Framework for Trajectory Modeling via Large-and-Small Model Collaborationcited by 5
  7. 2026TrajFlow: Nation-wide Pseudo GPS Trajectory Generation with Flow Matching Modelscited by 5
  8. 2025CAMS: A CityGPT-Powered Agentic Framework for Urban Human Mobility Simulationcited by 4
  9. 2025Large Language Model Powered Intelligent Urban Agents: Concepts, Capabilities, and Applicationscited by 4
  10. 2026ELLMob: Event-Driven Human Mobility Generation with Self-Aligned LLM Frameworkcited by 4
  11. 2025Massive-STEPS: Massive Semantic Trajectories for Understanding POI Check-ins -- Dataset and Benchmarkscited by 3
  12. 2025RALLM-POI: Retrieval-Augmented LLM for Zero-shot Next POI Recommendation with Geographical Rerankingcited by 3
10 more
  1. 2025Aligning LLM agents with human learning and adjustment behavior: a dual agent approachcited by 3
  2. 2025Urban Computing in the Era of Large Language Modelscited by 2
  3. 2025Mixture-of-Experts for Personalized and Semantic-Aware Next Location Predictioncited by 2
  4. 2025The LLM Wears Prada: Analysing Gender Bias and Stereotypes through Online Shopping Datacited by 1
  5. 2026ARMove: Learning to Predict Human Mobility through Agentic Reasoningcited by 1
  6. 2024Dynamic Cross-Modal Alignment for Robust Semantic Location Predictioncited by 0
  7. 2025AI's Blind Spots: Geographic Knowledge and Diversity Deficit in Generated Urban Scenariocited by 0
  8. 2025TS-Mob: Social and Geographical-Aware Time Series Foundation-Model Framework for Human Mobility Predictioncited by 0
  9. 2025Generating Individual Travel Diaries Using Large Language Models Informed by Census and Land-Use Datacited by 0
  10. 2026On the security and privacy of LLMs in Mobilitycited by 0

Similar, not cited

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  1. 2026Do LLMs Know Your Neighborhood? Auditing LLM Priors for Neighborhood-Level Mobility Prediction and Structural Alignment
  2. 2025Using LLMs for Analyzing AIS Data
  3. 2025LocationReasoner: Evaluating LLMs on Real-World Site Selection Reasoning
  4. 2023Are Large Language Models Geospatially Knowledgeable?
  5. 2023Charting New Territories: Exploring the Geographic and Geospatial Capabilities of Multimodal LLMs
  6. 2025Can Large Language Models Integrate Spatial Data? Empirical Insights into Reasoning Strengths and Computational Weaknesses
  7. 2025MoveFM-R: Advancing Mobility Foundation Models via Language-driven Semantic Reasoning
  8. 2025MoveGPT: Scaling Mobility Foundation Models with Spatially-Aware Mixture of Experts