Artificial Intelligence for Peabody College

If you choose to use generative AI tools for course assignments, academic work, or published writing, it is crucial to acknowledge and cite their outputs carefully. Always consult with your instructor before incorporating AI into your coursework.

AI citation norms and conventions are evolving, and major style guides have issued preliminary guidelines. Publishers may also have their own specific recommendations for citing AI-generated content.

Here are some key principles for citing AI-generated content, regardless of citation style:

• Always cite or acknowledge the outputs of generative AI tools in your work. This includes direct quotes, paraphrasing, and use of the tool for tasks such as editing, translating, idea generation, and data processing.
• Do not rely on sources cited by AI tools without verifying them yourself. This is crucial because:
• Generative AI tools can create fictitious citations.
• AI tools might cite actual sources, but the content may be inaccurate.

Be adaptable to citing AI-generated content, as guidelines will evolve and may not always reflect the latest technological developments. If uncertain about citation practices, include a note in your text explaining how you used the AI tool.

Remember, the main reasons for citing sources are to credit the original author or creator and to enable others to locate the sources you used. Use these principles to guide your decisions on citing AI-generated content.

When citing AI-generated content in APA style, treat it as the output of an algorithm, attributing authorship to the company or organization behind the model. For instance, when citing ChatGPT, the author would be OpenAI, the organization responsible for creating ChatGPT.

Here are some guidelines for referencing AI-generated content in APA style:

1. Include both an in-text citation and a corresponding entry in your reference list when referencing this content directly in your text.
2. If AI tools were used in your research, describe them in your paper's introduction or methods section, and include the prompts you used.
3. Incorporate the content directly into your paper for shorter text passages. For longer responses from generative AI tools, consider including them in an appendix or providing a link to an online supplement.

Basic format:

Author/Creator/Developer. (Year). Model name (Version) [Large language model]. URL

Example:

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (May 24 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat/

• Author. APA recommends citing the creator (i.e., author/developer) of the model as the author (note: this is not the case for all citation styles, e.g., MLA).
• (Publication Date). Date of content creation - only need to include year. 2023.
• Name of the Model. The name of the model serves as the title and is italicized in your reference. ChatGPT.
• (Version specification). Identify the version you used in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods. (May 24 version).
• [Additional description to provide context for the reader]. Bracketed text providing additional context is often included in APA citations for less common sources. For text-based generative AI, APA recommends providing the descriptor “Large language model” or "Large multimodal model" in square brackets. Pending further recommendations, use your best discretion based on how the creators/publishers describe the model you're citing. [Large language model].
• URL. When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the most direct URL available to access the model. https://chat.openai.com/chat/

NOTE: Color added to citation elements is for illustrative purposes - should not be included in actual references