Always check your syllabus to confirm that you're allowed to use generative AI tools with your coursework! If you are using generative AI, then consider how to properly cite or acknowledge the use of AI.
Be flexible in your approach to citing AI-generated content, because emerging guidelines will always lag behind the current state of technology, and the way that technology is applied. If you are unsure of how to cite something, include a note in your text that describes how you used a certain tool.
When in doubt, remember that we cite sources for two primary purposes: first, to give credit to the author or creator; and second, to help others locate the sources you used in your research. Use these two concepts to help make decisions about using and citing AI-generated content.
Content above from Brown University Libraries Guide on Generative Artificial Intelligence
The APA Style team has written a post on how to cite Chat GPT (last updated February 2024). The following is adapted from that post:
The author of the model (e.g., OpenAI)
The date is the year of the version you used. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.
The name of the model (e.g. “ChatGPT,”) is the title and is italicized in your reference.
The version number is included after the title in parentheses. You use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.
Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. In the case of a reference for a generative AI tool, the descriptor should be “Large language model” or however else the publisher describes the model.
Use the direct URL of your ChatGPT conversation. For other models, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the conversation, or if not, then the model, rather than the publisher’s homepage).
The MLA Style Center provides extensive examples of how to cite generative AI tools used to paraphrase text, quote text, create visual works, quote creative textual work, or cite secondary sources used by the tool. The guide to using their MLA template below is taken from their Citing Generative AI page:
We do not recommend treating the AI tool as an author. This recommendation follows the policies developed by various publishers, including the MLA’s journal PMLA.
Describe what was generated by the AI tool. This may involve including information about the prompt in the Title of Source element if you have not done so in the text.
Use the Title of Container element to name the AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT).
Name the version of the AI tool as specifically as possible. For example, the examples in this post were developed using ChatGPT 3.5, which assigns a specific date to the version, so the Version element shows this version date.
Name the company that made the tool.
Give the date the content was generated.
Give the URL for the chat (or, if there is no publicly available URL for the chat, give the general URL for the tool).
The Chicago Manual of Style Style Q & A provides examples of how to cite content developed by AI and recommends using footnotes or endnotes to indicate what and how generative AI tools were used. However, it suggests that writers should not include ChatGPT or similar tools in a bibliography or reference list unless they can provide a reliable link to the chat itself that anyone can access (many of those tools now do provide such a link). The recommendations below come from the Q&A:
Use a superscript number (like this: ¹) in the text at the place where you are indicating that you are citing from a source.
Text generated by Program, Month Day, Year used, Company, https://chat.openai.com/chat.
Example: The following information was collected by ChatGPT using the prompt Do all caterpillars turn into butterflies?: "While the majority of caterpillars turn into butterflies, there is an exception - moths. The metamorphosis process can result in either a butterfly or a moth, depending on the caterpillar species."¹
1. Text generated by ChatGPT, May 18, 2023, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com/chat.
Program, response to “prompt,” Month Day, Year used, Company.
Example: "Not all Canadian Geese participate in a seasonal migration pattern. Those located within urban locations or in a region with favorable conditions year round, will become permanent residents of the region. Those who do migrate will follow flyway routes - well-established migration routes that connect their breeding grounds in the North and their wintering locations in the South."²
2. ChatGPT, response to “Explain the migration pattern of Canadian Geese,” May 18, 2023, OpenAI.