Hallucination Rates and Reference Accuracy of ChatGPT and Bard for Systematic Reviews: Comparative Analysis

Background Large language models (LLMs) have raised both interest and concern in the academic community. They offer the potential for automating literature search and synthesis for systematic reviews but raise concerns regarding their reliability, as the tendency to generate unsupported (hallucinated) content persist. Objective The aim of the study is to assess the performance of LLMs such as ChatGPT and Bard (subsequently rebranded Gemini) to produce references in the context of scientific writing. Methods The performance of ChatGPT and Bard in replicating the results of human-conducted systematic reviews was assessed. Using systematic reviews pertaining to shoulder rotator cuff pathology, these LLMs were…