Citing AI-Generated Text
Your professors want you to do research using authoritative sources, such as books and articles in a library database, and this means they most likely would not approve of using AI, such as ChatGPT, as a source for your paper.
However, if you did use AI to come up with a main idea in your research, and you also have a lot of other sources that are authoritative and reliable, then it would be ethical to cite AI as one of your sources. This is something good to discuss with your instructor.
When creating the citation, you can think of an AI response as similar to a web article on that topic. Please note that other users won't get exactly the same response since the system generates the text each time. However, it is important to note the prompt you used to get the response, the date, and the type of AI software you are using, as the systems are updated frequently. Since generative AI is relatively new, the standards for formatting a citation of an AI source are still evolving, but below are some ways to cite it that are considered acceptable in MLA and APA style.
Keep in mind that AI programs do sometimes make factual mistakes, and ChatGPT includes a statement warning users to check the facts themselves in other sources.
In addition, much of what AI provides is very general and can be considered common knowledge. Common knowledge refers to facts that most of your readers probably have memorized, and it doesn’t actually need to be cited. But if you are a college student, sometimes it is hard to know if something is common knowledge or not. In that case, it is better to be safe than sorry. Just include a citation to an authoritative source that confirms what the AI provided.
MLA Style: Full Citations and In-text Citations for AI Sources
Full Citation Format: Here is how the MLA Style Center (read more here) recommends formatting MLA citations for ChatGPT. The following MLA citation is for the prompt response shown as a screenshot at the bottom of this page:
"Is copying text generated by ChatGPT for a school assignment considered plagiarism?" prompt. ChatGPT, Version 3.5, OpenAI, 15 May 2024, https://chatgpt.com.
In-text Citation Format: It is required to show your professors/readers which sentences in your paper are based on research or other sources. An in-text citation is the citation within the sentence to show where the information came from. Here is an example sentence with an MLA in-text citation that corresponds to the example full MLA citation above.
According to OpenAI, students using ChatGPT in a paper should always give credit to OpenAI for any borrowed text ("Is copying text generated").
In this example, I mentioned OpenAI at the beginning of the sentence and created a parenthetical citation that uses only the first four words of the prompt title. In MLA parenthetical citations, it is common to abbreviate a long title with just the first four to six words from a long title.
APA Style: In-text Citations and Full Citations for AI Sources
According to the APA Style Blog (read more here), the most updated method for citing ChatGPT or another AI tool is to include the prompt you used in the text of the paper and a parenthetical citation citing the AI company.
In-text Citation: In other words, the in-text citation for AI must have two parts: the prompt you used in quotation marks and a parenthetical citation.
When given the prompt, "Is copying text generated by ChatGPT for a school assignment considered plagiarism?", ChatGPT indicated that students using ChatGPT in a paper should always give credit to OpenAI for any borrowed text (OpenAI, 2024).
Full Citation: Then on the list of references, you would include the following information from the ChatGPT output (see screenshot at the bottom of this page), as formatted in this full citation:
OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (May 15 version) [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com.
Original ChatGPT Prompt from May 15, 2024
