Artificial Intelligence (AI) Help Guide

As AI tools become more common in research and academia, it’s important to know when and how to give credit. Sometimes, you’ll need to formally cite AI-generated content in styles like APA or MLA, especially if you’re quoting or closely paraphrasing information from an AI tool. Other times, like when you use AI to help brainstorm ideas or revise your writing, you don’t need a formal citation, but you should still acknowledge your use of AI.

Acknowledge your AI usage on your references page or in another location specified by your instructor. Your acknowledgement should include the following: 

• Name of the AI tool(s) you used
• Link to the AI tool(s) you used or, if available, a link to the AI chat transcript(s)
• Description of how or why you used generative AI
• The prompt(s) you submitted to the AI tool, if applicable
• Explanation of how you incorporated the AI's output/response into your finished product

⭐ Formatting an AI Use Acknowledgement Statement

Use and adapt this statement to acknowledge your use of generative AI tools:

I acknowledge the use of [name of AI tool(s) and link(s)] to [describe why or how you used generative AI]. I used the following prompt: [list of prompts]. The output from these prompts was used to [explain use].

If you quote or paraphrase content generated by AI in your writing or other work, it’s important to provide a proper citation. Citing AI-generated material gives credit to the source and helps you maintain your academic integrity.

General recommendations for citing AI-generated content and using AI tools to create citations:

• Cite the outputs of generative AI tools when you use them in your work. Include a citation every time you directly quote, paraphrase, or summarize a response from a generative AI tool. 


• Do not rely on sources cited by generative AI tools without reading those sources yourself. AI tools are notorious for making up citations, sharing broken links, and citing sources that do not confirm the information shared in their responses. Always go to a source yourself to verify its existence and to evaluate the information or perspectives it shares. 


• If you use AI tools to generate citations, make sure those citations are correctly formatted. Several generative AI tools, like ChatGPT or Grammarly, can help you create citations for sources you find in your research. Be sure to compare these citations with the official style guidelines to ensure they are correct.


• Be flexible in your approaches to citing AI-generated content. Official style guidelines are still emerging and are likely to change as AI technologies continue to evolve. If you are unsure how to cite something generated by AI, contact the library, consult with your instructor, and include a note in your writing that describes how you used a certain tool. 

Below are current guidelines for citing AI-generated content in APA, MLA, and Chicago Style. 

When you reference AI-generated content directly in your text, you should include an in-text citation, and an associated entry in your reference list. Cite any AI-generated content that you quote, paraphrase, or summarize.

For citations in APA Style, treat the author of AI-generated content as the company or organization that created the AI model. For example, when citing content generated by ChatGPT, list the author as OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT.

Other Recommendations:

• In the text of your paper, briefly explain the prompt you used so readers know how you accessed your information.
• If the chat is particularly relevant to your paper, include the chat transcript as an appendix at the end of your paper.
• If you have used AI tools in an original research design, you should describe that use in your introduction or methods section, and include the prompts that you used.
• If it's possible to create a shareable link to the chat transcript, include that instead of the tool's URL.
• Citing an AI-generated image in APA Style follows mostly the same rules as how to cite an image in APA, with the addition of mentioning the prompt and AI tool in the caption note.

When you reference AI-generated content directly in your text, you should include an in-text citation, and an associated entry in your Works Cited list. Cite any AI-generated content that you quote, paraphrase, or summarize.

MLA Style views AI-generated content as a source with no author, so you'll use the title of the source in your in-text citations, and in your reference list. The title you create should be a short description of the AI-generated content, such as an abbreviated version of the prompt you used. 

Other Recommendations:

• If you use an AI tool for some other purpose, such as translating, editing, or generating an outline, include a note about this somewhere in your paper.
• If it's possible to create a shareable link to the chat transcript, include that instead of the tool's URL.
• To cite an AI-generated image in your work, follow MLA's guidelines to create a caption for it. In your image caption, use a description of the prompt, followed by the name AI tool, the tool's version, and the date the image was created.

When you reference AI-generated content directly in your text, you should include a note or parenthetical citation. Cite any AI-generated content that you quote, paraphrase, or summarize.

However, Chicago Style advises you not to include AI-generated content as a source in your bibliography or reference list. This guidance from the Chicago Manual of Style may change as AI tools continue to evolve and grow in popularity.

For note and parenthetical citations, Chicago Style treats the author as the AI tool used (e.g., ChatGPT, CoPilot, Perplexity AI, etc.).

Other Recommendations:

• Only include a URL if it directs to the specific chat transcript you are citing. Otherwise, omit the URL in note citations.
• If possible, describe the prompt you used to generate the content in the text of your paper, but if that approach doesn't work, you can include that information in a footnote or endnote.

Presented by Chris Anglim, Reference Librarian and Archivist at UDC Library, on March 28, 2025.

Stop! Don’t cut and paste that! Gen AI is a powerful, time-saving tool but if you use it incorrectly, that’s cheating. In this session, we talk about how you can use AI without cheating or committing plagiarism. We’ll share current academic honesty guidelines, discuss the importance of communicating with your teacher/boss/audience about using AI, and demonstrate how to correctly cite AI in your work.