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Artificial Intelligence: Citing Guidelines for AI Sources

This guide supports faculty and students in their exploration of AI within the context of teaching and learning.

APA Formatting for AI

The American Psychological Association, APA, provides guidance on referencing use of the output of an AI tool and on referencing the AI tool as a system. Their guidance follows their latest citation formatting guidelines for citing personal communication (the output of an AI tool) and for citing software (AI tool as a system). 

Their blog post with examples can be found at: https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt 

MLA Formatting for AI

The Modern Language Association, MLA, uses their template of core elements to guide writers in the creation of their citations for use of the output of an AI generator. The website MLA devotes to describing their approach to building a reference to the use of AI also includes examples on how to cite: 

  • Paraphrased textual output of an AI tool
  • Quoted textual output of an AI tool
  • Creative visual works generated by AI 
  • Creative textual works generated by AI
  • Secondary sources used by an AI tool 

The website and examples can be found at: https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai/