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Julie Feighery

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 Bing AI.” 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.

Here are some guidelines from IU about using AI.

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. (Note: the style guide post is slightly out of date; you can now send someone a URL of your ChatGPT conversation.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

“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.

 

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, Bard)
  • 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 (Note: the style guide post is slightly out of date; you can now send someone a URL of your ChatGPT conversation.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..

Citing AI-generated images

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..

APA

As of July 2024, 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

Source

“Citing AI” from “AI and Information Literacy .” by the University of Maryland Libraries and the Teaching and Learning Transformation Center. CC BY-NC 4.0

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Citing AI Copyright © by Julie Feighery is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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