Ask your program or professor about their guidelines for incorporating information generated by ChatGPT and other AI in your papers. When permissible to use that information directly, make sure to cite a generative AI tool whenever you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate any content (whether text, image, data, or other) that was created by it.
Several citation guides have released official or semi-official guidance on how to cite AI-generated content. Use the information below to learn more about specific guidelines for each major citation style. This information is also available in our Citation Guides.
Note: It is always good to remember why we cite and recognize how the use of AI tools impacts original work.
APA Style 7th edition
APA's Position: The results of a “chat” with a generative AI, like ChatGPT, are not retrievable by other readers. Although other types nonretrievable data or quotations are usually cited as personal communications in APA Style papers, with generative AI produced text there is no person communicating. Quoting an AI's text from a chat session is therefore more similar to sharing an algorithm’s output. APA, therefore recommends that citations should credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation. See the post on the APA Style Blog for more details.
Format:
Company that made the tool (date text was generated). AI tool (version of tool) [Large language model]. URL.
In-text example:
(OpenAI, 2023)
Reference example:
OpenAI (2023). ChatGPT (May 24 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
MLA Style 9th edition
MLA provides preliminary official guidance for citing information produced by generative AI. According to MLA, writers should not credit the AI as an author. Additionally, the description of the content of the generated product should be treated as the title of the source, as if it were an article or chapter title.
Format:
"Prompt text" prompt. AI tool, version of the tool, company that made the tool, date text was generated. URL.
In-text example:
While the green light in The Great Gatsby might be said to chiefly symbolize four main things: optimism, the unattainability of the American dream, greed, and covetousness (“Describe the symbolism”), arguably the most important—the one that ties all four themes together—is greed.
Works Cited entry example:
“Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.
Chicago Style 18th edition
Briefly, in Chicago style, you must credit AI when you reproduce its words within your own work, but unless you include a publicly available URL, that information should be put in the text or in a note—not in a bibliography or reference list. Other AI-generated text can be cited similarly. For more details, visit CMOS FAQs.
Footnote or endnote Format:
1. Text generated by ChatGPT, March 31, 2023, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com.
If the prompt has not been included in the body of the text, it can be included in the note:
1. ChatGPT, response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients,” OpenAI, March 7, 2023.
Author-Date Format:
If you’re using author-date instead of footnotes or endnotes, any information not provided in the body of the text would be placed in a parenthetical text reference. For example,
(ChatGPT, March 7, 2023).
APA Style 7th Edition
APA has not issued specific guidance on how to cite AI-generated images. For now, cite as you would any other image, using the guidelines APA has issued for AI-generated text.
In-text citation
(Company that made the AI tool, year image was generated).
Bibliography
Company that made the AI tool. (Year image was generated). Name of the AI tool, as specifically as possible. Version of the AI tool. [AI image generator]. URL.
In-text citation example:
(OpenAI, 2023).
Bibliography example:
OpenAI. (2023). DALL-E 2. [AI image generator]. https://openai.com/dall-e-2
Check out the APA Audiovisual Media Style Guide for more information
MLA Style 9th Edition
If you're including an AI-generated image in the body of a paper, give it a figure number (i.e. Fig. 1, Fig. 2)
Fig. 1. "Full prompt" prompt, Name of Tool, version of tool, Company Name, date image was generated, URL.
Chicago Style 18th Edition
The Chicago Manual of Style's website recommends you cite AI-generated images like any other image, while including both the name of the AI tool that generated the image, the company that created the AI, and the prompt that generated the image. For more details, visit CMOS FAQs
"Prompt," image generated by Company's AI Tool, date image was generated.
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