With the rapid development of the modern artificial intelligent technology, the machine learning based artificial intelligence(AI)technology has been gradually carried out widely in many different fields including medical field and it has also shown great potential in Ophthalmology. Most diagnostics of eye diseases, to a large extent, rely on accessory examination, which mostly output the results in the form of images. However, since the ocular image is usually very fine and complex that contains amount of information, it is difficult for doctors to diagnose correctly every time and even they do, it is still subjective and time consuming. Combined with computer, the application of machine learning based AI technology can largely improve the diagnostic accuracy, ease the burden of ophthalmologists and patient. The article aims to synthesize the researches on the applications of machine learning based AI technology in ophthalmology by local and foreign scholars and give a review on the progress, existing problems and personal future outlook.