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Artificial Intelligence - AI

Includes Student Guide to AI

Citing Generative AI

3 steps for citing GenAI in your work

  • Make sure it is ethical for you to use GenAI output.
  • Fact-check any content you plan to use to ensure accuracy and reliability.
  • Cite or acknowledge your use properly.

 

See below for guidance on how to cite/acknowledge the use of GenAI.

Citing AI in MLA style August 2025

Citing AI in APA style - September 2025

The following information is a direct quote from:

McAdoo, T., Denneny, S., & Lee, C. (2025, September 9). Citing generative AI in APA Style: Part 1—Reference formats. American Psychological Association. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/cite-generative-ai-references

As of September 2025, most AI chat tools, including ChatGPT, now include a sharing option that typically provides users with a unique URL and a title for each chat. This makes creating an APA Style reference for a specific chat a simple matter of following the author–date–title–source format used in most APA Style references.

AI Company Name. (year, month day). Title of chat in italics [Description, such as Generative AI chat]. Tool Name/Model. URL of the chat

Example references to specific AI chats

To create reference examples for this post, we asked four AI tools for a list of grammar concepts that students should know by the end of high school. Our prompt was “I’d like a list of grammar topics that a student should understand by the time they graduate from high school.” In this scenario, we want to include those chats as references in a paper.

Here are the references for those chats:

Anthropic. (2025, May 20). Essential grammar topics for high school graduates [Generative AI chat]. Claude Sonnet 4. https://claude.ai/share/329173b2-ec93-4663-ac68-4f65ea4f166d

Google. (2025, May 22). High school grammar concepts overview [Generative AI chat]. Gemini 2.5 Flash. https://g.co/gemini/share/a1306ce12929

OpenAI. (2025, August 21). High school grammar concepts [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT. https://chatgpt.com/share/68a77b60-0ee4-800c-9acc-cd3fd573c311

Perplexity AI. (2025, May 20). High school grammar topics [Generative AI chat]. Perplexity. https://www.perplexity.ai/search/a457cb8c-c663-4c9b-b34e-cb03d8108b35

 

  • Parenthetical citations: (Anthropic, 2025; Google, 2025; OpenAI, 2025; Perplexity AI, 2025)
  • Narrative citations: Anthropic (2025), Google (2025), OpenAI (2025), and Perplexity AI (2025)

Citing AI in Chicago Style, 18th Edition - 2024

A Note on Citing AI-Generated Content in Chicago

Please note: If you have used AI-generated content in your assignment, you are required not only to provide proper citations, but also, to explain how you used AI for your assignment.

  • For example, did the AI tool translate words for you? Did it explain a concept to you? Did it give you a plan for how you would structure your assignment? Describe all of how the AI tool(s) helped you.
  • If your assignment contains content that was initially generated by an AI tool and then modified (for example, you edited text that you got from ChatGPT, and then added it to your assignment), you should acknowledge this as well.

You can do this at any point in your assignment (in the introduction, the body text, etc., whatever is most appropriate).

Also, be sure to confirm that your instructor allows the use of AI tools in assignments.

Bibliography Entries for AI-Generated Content

When using Chicago Style, do not include a Bibliography entry for your AI-generated content unless you are able to provide a publicly available URL to it (i.e. a URL that does not require the user to log in before they can view the content). If you are not able to provide a publicly available URL, include only a footnote for the AI-generated content (or a caption, if it is an image).

ChatGPT

Bibliography Entry:

OpenAI. Response to “Full text of prompt.” ChatGPT version number, Month Day, Year. Direct URL to ChatGPT prompt and response.

Note: The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition, does not recommend including chatbot conversations in a Bibliography. However, if you are required to include a Bibliography entry in your assignment for ChatGPT-generated content, use the formatting outlined above.

Footnote:

Footnote Number. Text generated by ChatGPT version number, OpenAI, Month Day, Year, Direct URL to ChatGPT prompt and response.

If you have not included your prompt in the body text of your assignment, add it to the footnote, using the following formatting:

Footnote Number. Response to “Full text of prompt,” ChatGPT version number, OpenAI, Month Day, Year.

Shortened Footnote:

Footnote Number. ChatGPT version number, Month Day, Year.

Or, if you included your prompt in your original footnote:

Footnote Number. ChatGPT, response to "First four words of prompt."

Note: If you have used ChatGPT for your assignment, make sure to explain how you used it. (For example, did it translate words for you? Did it explain a concept to you? Did it create a plan for how you would structure your assignment? Explain all of the ways in which ChatGPT helped you.) You can do this in the preface or body text of your assignment, or in another appropriate location.

Note: In order to generate a direct URL to your ChatGPT prompt and response, you must be logged in to ChatGPT. When you are logged in, your conversations will be saved, and you can generate a URL to share with others.

Bibliography Entry Example

N/A (see above)

or (if required):

OpenAI. Response to “Write a 500 word overview of Marcel Duchamp's influence on the postmodern art movement.” ChatGPT-4o, September 18, 2024. https://chatgpt.com/share/66eb3e96-ad28-8005-8f62-eb4f465497ab
Footnote Example

1. Text generated by ChatGPT-4o, OpenAI, September 18, 2024, https://chatgpt.com/share/66eb3e96-ad28-8005-8f62-eb4f465497ab.

or:

1. Response to “Write a 500 word overview of Marcel Duchamp's influence on the postmodern art movement,” ChatGPT-4o, OpenAI, September 18, 2024.
Shortened Footnote Example

2. ChatGPT-4o, September 18, 2024.

or:

2. ChatGPT-4o, response to "Write a 500 word." 

DALL-E

Bibliography Entry:

The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition, does not recommend adding a bibliography entry for images generated using AI.

Captions and Footnotes:

If you insert an image generated by DALL-E into your assignment, include a caption or footnote underneath the image. Use the following formatting:

Caption:

Fig. Number. Image generated by DALL-E version number, Month Day, Year, from the prompt “Full text of prompt.”

Caption Example:

AI-generated image of a basket of six kittens, done in an Impressionist painting style. Three of the kittens are white with ginger heads, two are gray, and one is a mix of white, ginger, and black.

Fig. 1. Image generated by DALL-E 3, September 19, 2024, from the prompt “Create an Impressionist-style image of a basket of five kittens.”

Footnote:

Footnote Number. Image generated by DALL-E version number, Month Day, Year, from the prompt "Full text of prompt.”

Shortened Footnote:

Footnote Number. DALL-E version number, "First few words of prompt."

Bibliography Entry Example N/A (see above)
Footnote Example

 

1. Image generated by DALL-E 3, September 19, 2024, from the prompt “Create an Impressionist-style image of a basket of five kittens.”
Shortened Footnote Example

 

2. DALL-E 3, “Create an Impressionist-style image."

AI-Generated Videos and Audio

Bibliography Entry:

The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition, does not recommend adding a bibliography entry unless you are able to include a publicly available URL. As of September 23, 2024, this is not possible for videos created by Clip Creator (the AI tool used in the examples below), because they require a login in order to be viewed.

Footnote:

Footnote Number. Video/Audio generated by Name of AI Tool version if applicable, Company or Creator of AI Tool, Month Day, Year.

Shortened Footnote:

Footnote Number. Name of AI Tool version if applicable, Month Day, Year.

Bibliography Entry Example N/A (see above)
Footnote Example

1. Video generated by Clip Creator, HubSpot, September 23, 2024.
Shortened Footnote Example

2. Clip Creator, September 23, 2024.

Bibliography

The information in this box was developed from the following resource:

The Chicago Manual of Style. 18th ed. The University of Chicago Press, 2024.

 

The CMSO 18th Edition for AI-Generated Content was adapted and used with permission from "Chicago Citation Guide (18th Edition): AI-Generated Content" by Columbia College, Vancouver, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Copyright and AI

This page was created in collaboration with Tricia Bertram Gallant, P.h.D., Director of UCSD Academic Integrity Office & Triton Testing Center.