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APA Style: Citing AI

Write and cite in APA Style

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Talk to your instructor about using AI tools for assignments. If you do not get permission, your assignment may get an automatic fail grade.

If you have permission for using an AI model in your research and/or writing, include a description of how you used the model in an appropriate section of your paper, e.g., in your methods section, or, for a literature review or response paper, in your introduction.

Citing AI

All AI is software, so follow the citation format for software.

Basic format:

Author/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/

Plagiarism

Always verify information and sources generated by AI tools:

  • AI has been known to generate false information and to cite non-existent sources
  • AI-generated text mines people's intellectual property without crediting them, which raises ethical concerns

In-Text Citations & Reference

Citing the output from an AI model is like sharing an algorithm's output. It must be noted that the output was generated by a Large Language Model (LLM) and the model identified.

In-text citation example, direct quotation:

When prompted with the question "is the beaver a destructive animal?", the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that "the influence of beavers on their environment can be both constructive and destructive, contingent on the particular context" (OpenAI, 2023).

In-text citation example, paraphrased:

ChatGPT-generated text indicated that the categorization of beavers as 'destructive' or 'constructive' is multifaceted and not simply binary (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Note: ChatGPT does not currently cite any sources unless specifically requested in your prompt. Even if references are requested, it is known to make up, or "hallucinate" sources that do not exist. Other AI models such as Bing AI Chat do cite sources, but it is important to assess the quality and reliability of each one individually.

General format, references list:

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

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

Appendix

Add the transcript as a document in the Appendixes. AI tools generate unique responses in each chat session, even if given the same prompt.

You must mention the transcript in a citation at least once in your paper:

(OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

The Artificial Intelligence Disclosure (AID) Framework

"The purpose of the Artificial Intelligence Disclosure (AID) Framework is to provide brief, targeted disclosure about the use of AI systems based on the range of activities used for research writing. The AID Statement is appended to the end of the paper (similar to an acknowledgments section), detailing the AI tools used and the manner in which they were used..." (Weaver, 2024)

The formatting follows this structure:

AID Statement: Artificial Intelligence Tool: [description of tools used]; [Heading]: [description of AI use in that stage of the work]:

AI Statement Example

Artificial Intelligence Tool: Microsoft Copilot; Conceptualization: Microsoft Copilot was used to identify key motor-performance fitness tasks in the development of the research question; Information Collection: I used Microsoft Copilot to find relevant journal articles and other sources.

Weaver, K. D. An artificial intelligence disclosure (AID) framework: An introduction. College & Research Libraries News, 85(10). https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.85.10.407

 

References

McAdoo, T. (2023, April 7). How to cite ChatGPT. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt