1. Check with your professor to ensure that using generative AI is allowed and follow their guidelines.
2. Always verify the accuracy of AI-generated content, which means you need to fact-check.
3. Properly cite or acknowledge its use.
You should provide an in-text citation when any part of your paper was aided by the use of AI tools. However, in the Personal Communication section of the APA style manual, it is recommended that private or non-recoverable communications, like AI chat queries, not be listed as sources on the references page of an academic paper. Should you need to cite your AI use, however, APA style recommends citing the AI tool as the author, with in-text citations and references adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (McAdoo, 2024).
Examples:
The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
(McAdoo, 2024)
Much like APA, the Chicago Manual of Style requires AI usage to be cited in-text through the academic paper, but personal or non-recoverable sources of information should not be included in the bibliography or reference list (The Chicago Manual of Style, n.d.). Should you be required by a professor to cite AI, or should you refer to publicly available AI communications, Chicago style currently (as of October 2024) cites the AI tool as author, using ChatGPT as an example. In this case, ChatGPT is the author of the content, and the date is the date the text was generated. OpenAI (the organization that developed ChatGPT) is then listed as the publisher or sponsor of the content.
Example of a number footnote or endnote:
1. Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, March 7, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/chat.
If the prompt hasn’t been included in 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.
(The Chicago Manual of Style, 2024)
Unlike the previous citation styles, MLA requires use of AI to be cited in-text and on the works cited page. As of October 2024, MLA does not recommend treating an AI tool as an author. Instead, you should use the "Title of Container" element to specify the AI tool.
Example Works Cited List Entry from the Modern Language Association:
“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.
Example paraphrased in prose from the Modern Language Association:
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.
The Chicago Manual of Style. (2024). Citation, documentation of sources. The Chicago Manual of Style Online. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0422.html
The Chicago Manual of Style. (n.d.). How do you recommend citing content developed or generated by artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT? In *Chicago Manual of Style Q&A*. University of Chicago Press. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0422.html
McAdoo, T. (2024, February 23). How to cite ChatGPT? APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt
Modern Language Association. (2023, August 8). Citing generative AI. MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai/
