Introduction

If you're using AI to generate text or images, you should acknowledge that in your citations, just like you would for a human author, artist, or photographer. If using AI is allowed on an assignment your professor gives you, each time you include something AI-generated, you have to cite it. (Remember that you can only use AI on an assignment if your professor specifically says so, and always double check with your instructor if you have questions about AI usage or citations.)

Several citation guides have released official or semi-official guidance on how to cite AI-generated content. You can cite AI in your work using the guidelines below!

Why do we cite?

Citations and their formatting might seem irritating, but they're an important part of providing reliable information to an audience. Writing gets its credibility from sourcing the claims it makes. Readers need to be able to fact-check a writer's sources and trace where the claims in a piece come from.

Citing ChatGPT and other AI text generators

If you are using AI to help with a draft or outline, you'll want to acknowledge that with a sentence at the beginning or end of the paper that says something like, "This paper was produced with drafting support from Microsoft Copilot." Your instructor might have specific conventions for how they would like to list this as well, so it is always best practice to check in with them!

If you are citing a conversation with an AI tool, either as a source or as an object of study, explore each section below to learn how to cite AI text generators in different styles.

MLA

Building blocks

Author: Do not treat the AI as an author; MLA is reserving that for human authors. Omit the author section of the citation.
Title of source: Describe what was generated by the AI tool. If you have not included information about the prompt in the text of your essay, you need to do that here.
Title of container: The name of the AI tool.
Version: Name the version of the AI tool as specifically as possible.
Date: Include the date the content was generated.
Location: Give the URL for the tool. If possible, give the URL for the specific content.

Format

"Prompt text" prompt. AI tool, version of tool, company that made the tool, date text was generated. URL.

Examples

In-text citation: ("Describe the symbolism")
Bibliography: “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, https://chat.openai.com/share/dccb3610-1db9-4eed-88b1-cdb06f67982a.

Check out the MLA Style Guide for more information

Links to an external site.

APA

Building blocks

Author: Use the creator of the AI as the author (e.g. OpenAI, Google, etc.)
Date: Include the date the content was generated.
Title: Use the name of the AI tool (e.g. ChatGPT, Gemini)
Version: Name the version of the AI tool as specifically as possible.
Description: In brackets, clarify that this is a large language model, or another specific type of generative AI.
Location: Give the URL for the tool. If possible, give the URL for the specific content. (Note: the style guide post is slightly out of date; you can now send someone a URL of your ChatGPT conversation. This is the URL you should use in your citation.)

Format

Company that made the tool (date text was generated). AI tool (version of tool) [Large language model]. URL.

Examples

In-text citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
Bibliography: OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/share/dccb3610-1db9-4eed-88b1-cdb06f67982aLinks to an external site.Links to an external site..

Check out the APA Style Guide for more information

Chicago

In Chicago, you'll cite generative AI differently depending on whether or not you included the prompt in the text of your paper. If you included it in your paper, you don't need to repeat it in the citation.

Building blocks

Author: Treat the AI as the author. If you're footnoting quoted text, say "Text generated by [the AI tool]."
Date: Include the date the content was generated.
Publisher: Use the company that created the AI (e.g. OpenAI, Google)
Location: Give the URL for the tool. If possible, give the URL for the specific content.

Format

Prompt already included in paper:

1. Text generated by [name of the AI tool], date, Company that made the tool, URL.

Prompt not yet included in paper:

1. [Name of the AI tool], response to "prompt," date text was generated, Company that made the tool, URL.

Examples

Prompt already included in paper: 1. Text generated by ChatGPT, March 7, 2023, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com/share/dccb3610-1db9-4eed-88b1-cdb06f67982aLinks to an external site..
Prompt not yet included in paper: 1. ChatGPT, response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients,” March 7, 2023, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com/share/dccb3610-1db9-4eed-88b1-cdb06f67982aLinks to an external site..

Check out the Chicago Style Guide for more information

Citing AI-generated images

If you're referencing or including an AI-generated image in your papers, you should include information about how it was generated. This is also required for human-created artwork and some human-created photographs. In most citation styles, you don't need to include this in the works cited, only as a caption for the image.

MLA

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)

Building blocks

Figure number: This corresponds to the number of images you have in your paper. If this is the first image that shows up in your paper, you'd use "Fig. 1." If it's the third image, you'd use "Fig. 3", etc.
Author: Do not treat the AI as an author; MLA is reserving that for human authors. Omit the author section of the citation.
Title of work: Use the full prompt, or the first several words of the prompt, in quotation marks, followed by the word "prompt."
Title of container: The name of the AI tool.
Version: Name the version of the AI tool as specifically as possible.
Date: Include the date the content was generated.
Location: Give the URL for the tool. If possible, give the URL for the specific content.

Format

Fig. 1. "Full prompt" prompt, Name of Tool, version of tool, Company Name, date image was generated, URL.

Example

Fig. 1. “Pointillist painting of a sheep in a sunny field of blue flowers” prompt, DALL-E, version 2, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, labs.openai.com/Links to an external site..

Check out the MLA Style Guide for more information

APA

As of July 2023, 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.

Building blocks

Author: Use the creator of the AI as the author (e.g. OpenAI, Google, etc.)
Date: Use the year the content was generated.
Title: Use the name of the AI tool (e.g. ChatGPT, Bard)
Version: Name the version of the AI tool as specifically as possible.
Description: In brackets, clarify that this is an AI image generator, or another specific type of generative AI.
Location: Give the URL for the tool. If possible, give the URL for the specific content.

Format

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.

Examples

In-text citation: (OpenAI, 2023).
Bibliography: 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

Links to an external site.

Chicago

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.

Building blocks

Title: Use the full prompt, or the first several words of the prompt, as the title.
Creator: Use the phrase "image generated by," followed by the company that created the tool and the name of the tool. (e.g. Canva's Text to Image).
Date: Give the date the image was generated.

Format

"Prompt," image generated by Company's AI Tool, date image was generated.

Example

“A modern office rendered as a cubist painting,” image generated by OpenAI’s DALL·E 2, March 5, 2023.

Check out the Chicago Style Guide on images for more information

Now that you know how to cite AI-generated work, continue onto the final page of this module to explore some strategies for using AI-based tools creatively!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.