The release of the AI chatbot ChatGPT by OpenAI in San Francisco, California, has brought the capabilities of tools known as large language models (LLMs) to new heights. Nature, along with all Springer Nature journals, has formulated the following two principles about using LLMs ethically:

First, no LLM tool will be accepted as a credited author on a research paper. That is because any attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the work, and AI tools cannot take such responsibility.

Second, authors using LLM tools must declare and document this use in the Methods or Statements and Declarations sections of the manuscript.