Artificial Intelligence (AI) is ubiquitous in all our lives. We may not see it, but we encounter some type or form of AI in our professional, personal, and educational experience. According to the CSU Global policy on AI, "Some faculty can encourage the use of AI tools in the classroom to support student innovation and creativity on assignments and help students develop a solution path" (Colorado State University Global [CSUG], 2024).
If you are required to use AI for an assignment, this guide is designed to help you properly cite AI if you use it to generate text or an image for your course.
Since the results of an AI tool like ChatGPT are not replicable by your reader, you will want to include the prompt used to generate the text in the body of your document. Another option would be to include the entire response from the AI tool in the appendix of your paper.
| Reference List Citation |
Developer. (Version Year). Name of Generative AI tool (Version number) [Type of AI Model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat Reference OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (March 14 version) [Large language model]. https://openai.com/chat |
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In-text Citation |
When given the prompt, "What are the benefits of implementing a wellness program for employees?" ChatGPT generated a response that provided a list of several benefits including improved physical health which "can help reduce absenteeism due to illness" (OpenAI, 2024).
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Here is an example of how you would indicate the full text of ChatGPT generated responses in the appendix of your paper. If you do create appendices or supplemental materials, but sure to include at least one reference to them in the body of your APA Style paper.
| Appendix or supplemental materials |
When a follow-up prompt of "Create a list of activities for team cohesion," the ChatGPT-generated text indicated several activities to roll out for employees which included "team retreats, team outings," and "volunteer work" (OpenAI, 2024; see Appendix A for the full transcript). Reference OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT. (March 14 version) [Large language model]. https://openai.com/chat |
If you are including an AI-generated image into your document, follow the same rules you would from the APA Style for Tables, Figures, & Math page. Start with a figure number (bold) followed by an image title (italicized). Beneath the image, include a Note with details about the prompt used and the source. You will also want to include the full citation in your References list.
| Figure example |
Figure 1 Example of an AI-generated image
Note. Image generated using the prompt "Student writing, digital art," by Bing, Image Creator, 2024 (https://www.bing.com/images/create). |
| Reference citation |
Reference Bing. (2024). DALL-E (Version 3) [Text-to-image generation model]. https://www.bing.com/images/create |
