Citation: Citing Generative AI

Not all professors allow ChatGPT to be used in their courses, and other professors allow it to be used in different ways. Always make sure to check with your professor to make sure you are permitted to use AI in your coursework first.

General Information:

Read MLA's guidance on citing generative AI.

MLA does not treat the generative AI as an author. Instead, start your citation with the text of the prompt you gave in quotation marks, followed by the word prompt.

Format for Citing Generative AI in MLA: 

"Insert the text of your prompt” prompt. Generative AI Tool, Day Month version, Company that owns the AI, Day Month Year, link to the AI.

Works Cited Example: 

Reference: "What are examples of bias in algorithms?" prompt. ChatGPT, 25 Sep. version, OpenAI, 3 Oct. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.

In-Text: ("What are examples")

General Information: 

Read APA's guidance on citing generative AI.

APA treats referencing generative AI like citing an algorithm and does not ask for the prompt. However, APA recommends, if applicable, to mention the prompt in the body of the paper and attach an appendix with the transcription of the exchange with the AI. 

Format for Citing Generative AI in APA:

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

References Example: 

Reference: OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Sep 27 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

In-text: (OpenAI, 2023)

General Information: 

Read Chicago Style's guidance on citing generative AI.

Chicago treats the generative AI as the author, and the company that developed the AI as the publisher/sponsor. Chicago recommends citing AI in a footnote or parenthetical in-text citation, but not in the bibliography of your paper unless you can provide a publicly available link that would allow others to access it. Because exchanges with AI generally cannot be recreated exactly each time, Chicago treats generative AI as a type of personal communication (see CMOS 14.214 and 15.53). 

Format for Citing Generative AI in Chicago:

Footnote: 1. Text generated by specific generative AI, Day Month, Year, Company that owns AI, link to AI website.

Author-Date: (AI, Day Month, Year)

Citation Examples:

Footnote: 1. Text generated by ChatGPT, October 3, 2023, OpenAI, https://chat.openai.com/chat.

If you did not list the text prompt in the body of your paper, then construct the footnote as follows:

Footnote: 1. ChatGPT, response to “Tell me about biases in algorithms,” OpenAI, October 3, 2023.

Author-Date parenthetical citation: (ChatGPT, October 3, 2023)

The way that the citation styles ask you to format the information might be a little different, but they do want you to be able to list the version that you used in the citation! Here is a quick guide to finding the version information for ChatGPT and Bard: 

ChatGPT

The version will be located under the prompt box at the bottom of the page.

Bard

The version will be located by first clicking on the question mark icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen, then selecting Updates from the menu that appears. This will open a new page that will list the current version of Bard first at the top of the list of versions.