Editorial

Dear readers,

It is a great honour to welcome you to the first issue of the next volume of Acta chirurgiae plasticae. This is the 65th vo­lume of our journal, which was founded in 1959 by academician František Bu­rian. I am proud that we have been able to maintain the tradition of the journal even in this time of unprecedented competition from a huge number of other journals. Our journal is still undergoing further development; whether it is the new website of the journal ­www.achp.cz, which is gradually being filled with all the information about the publication of the journal, information about the current issue, available back issues of the journal, rules for authors and information about the possibility of advertising, etc. We have managed to completely digitize all volumes of our journal and gradually all previous issues and their articles will be available. This is important for becoming aware of our roots and getting an overview of how our field of plastic surgery has evolved over time. The winged phrase that we are standing on the shoulders of giants still holds true, so let us remember to be ever grateful to our teachers.

I also appeal to all our authors to start using our new editorial submission system, the Open Journal System, at the maximum measure possible. As the first step, it is necessary to create your account at the following link: https://redakce.carecomm.cz/achp/. The registration is easy, please, follow the instructions. The system enables submitting of a manuscript with all its enclosures (tables, graphs, figures, etc.). Following successful submission, a peer--review process will be initiated. You will be informed via the system about the course of this procedure. We would like to switch to this system in the full scale during this year.

We live in revolutionary times. In recent days, there has been a huge buzz around the development of artificial intelligence (AI), which is sure to revolutionize things in many ways. ChatGPT, launched in November, has become a huge global hit. The system can compose poems on a chosen topic, write essays, as well as scholarly articles or even explain jokes. The text-generating chatbot has even been used by a judge in Colombia to deliver a verdict. We are likely to be bombarded by a plethora of AI-generated texts in the future and it will become increasingly difficult to prove authorship and originality. We really need to heed the warnings of the innovator Elon Musk to be very careful about the use of AI, and in his view, these technologies could be humanity's biggest existential problem in the future. Ironically, Elon Musk has founded a company called Open AI, which is developing the system. In 1965, the writer

A. C. Clarke published the short story Dial F for Frankenstein, in which an information network spontaneously gives birth to AI that destroys the humans. For now, though, I would stick to the statement of Andrew Ng from Stanford University: „Worrying about the rise of evil killer robots is like worrying about overpopulation and pollution on Mars before we've even set foot on it.“ The man's greatest enemy still is, and will remain for a long time, the man only. The news from Eastern Europe convince us of this every day.

So let's enjoy the expert information given by purely human authors without using AI. I firmly believe that this issue of Acta chirurgiae plasticae will also bring you new expert knowledge and suggestions for practice: whether it will be information on the possibility of using posterior-interosseous free flap for finger defects, the possibility of using flaps for defects after sternotomy, the use of perforator flaps in plantar reconstruction or information on the relationship of the type of invasion of oral squamous cell carcinoma to the incidence of nodal metastases. The new possibilities of conjunctival sac reconstruction using a free flap or the use of absorbable splints in the treatment of fractures are also inspiring.

Have a pleasant reading and keep us in favor! 

Zdeněk Dvořák, MD, PhD

Chief editor