Large Language Model Authorship in Ophthalmic Publications.
Most sentences in ophthalmic commentary articles are likely artificial intelligence-generated.
Large Language Model Authorship in Ophthalmic Publications.
To assess for the likely presence of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated text in the published ophthalmology literature.
Abstract text from 27 142 research articles published in 22 journals between May 2020 and May 2025 was evaluated for changes in word-frequency usage with a focus on stylistic words previously found to be associated with large language model (LLM)-generated text.
Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, a marked increase in previously rarely used stylistic words was observed with at least a 2-fold usage increase observed in 20% of ophthalmology abstracts.
By 2025, 25.7% of sampled research articles and 21.6% of commentary articles contained AI-likelihood scores of more than 2 standard deviations above the baseline.
Use of AI was not disclosed among any of the publications with outlier scores.
Artificial intelligence brings significant promise in its ability to facilitate both scientific and medical advances. As these tools become more powerful, disclosure regarding the manner of their use becomes increasingly important.
We show that LLM-generated text is increasingly present in the ophthalmic literature and is rarely disclosed.