Citing AI-Generated Content in MLA
When citing AI-generated content in your Works Cited, begin with the “title” (the first sentence of the first prompt in the relevant conversation) encased in quotation marks. Following that, include the name of the AI tool (e.g., “ChatGPT 3.5” or “Bing AI”), along with the version date, the name of the organization that created it (e.g., “OpenAI” or “Microsoft”), the date you acquired the AI response, and the URL of the specific chat session where the response was generated. If you cannot access or share the URL of the chat session, use the generic URL of the tool instead.
In-text citations should consist of a condensed form of the title—reduced to three words—encased in quotation marks.
If you’re using content generated by an AI tool that doesn’t allow you to share a link to the full chat for the reader to review, it’s important to include the full generated response in an appendix to your paper. This allows readers to see the context of the AI’s response. The appendix should be labeled clearly and referred to in your in-text citation.
Here is an example of how you might format an appendix containing AI-generated content:
- Appendices should appear at the end of your paper, before your Works Cited page.
- Each appendix should start on a new page.
- Center the title at the top of the page. Start with the word “Appendix” and a letter if there are multiple appendices (e.g., “Appendix A”).
- Include the full text of the AI’s response. You may want to format this in a way that distinguishes it from your own writing, such as using a different font or including it as a block quote. You may also use screenshots if they are both 1) Readable and 2) Complete.
- In your in-text citation, refer to the appendix where the full AI response can be found. For example, (“Discuss the implications”; See Appendix A for full AI-generated response).
Remember, the goal is to ensure that your reader can easily find and understand the context of the AI’s response within your paper.
| Example: MLA ChatGPT citation | |
|---|---|
| MLA format | “Text of prompt” prompt. ChatGPT 3.5, Day Month version, OpenAI, Day Month Year, chat.openai.com/chat/abcdefg |
| MLA Works Cited entry | “Tell me about confirmation bias” prompt. ChatGPT 3.5, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 16 Feb. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat/abcdef |
| MLA in-text citation | (“Tell me about”; see Appendix A for full transcript) |
If you use an AI tool like ChatGPT or Bing AI to identify sources, and then utilize those sources in your work (as opposed to using the text produced by the AI itself), you only need to cite the sources you actually employed, not the AI tool that assisted in their discovery.
If you used an AI tool to revise a few words of your writing or translate words, MLA advises to acknowledge this at a suitable point in your text or in a footnote.
Work Cited
Caulfield, Jack. “CHATGPT Citations: Formats & Examples.” Scribbr, 1 May 2023, www.scribbr.com/ai-tools/chatgpt-citations/.