Generative AI: A Student's Guide

How to Cite Generative AI

Remember to check with your instructor. Some instructors might not allow any use of generative AI, such as ChatGPT and more, and others might allow only limited use.

If you are allowed to use generative AI in an academic assignment, here are some guidelines for citing.

Your instructor may also ask for an appendix that includes the prompts that you provided to the generative AI tool or the full transcript of your interaction.

It's also worth reading this advice, since some uses don't fit the standard way of citing: 

Credit: Based on the work of University of Arizona Libraries. CC BY 4.0

Are generative AI outputs "sources" of information for academic work?

 It's important to note that generative AI outputs are still largely predictive - the large language models (LLMs) use what they have been trained on in the context of the user's prompts to generate content. They may not always be accurate or reliable; they do not cite their sources and can hallucinate non-existent sources; and outputs can be influenced by the user themselves. Outputs are also "non-retrievable." Therefore, unless you have been given an assignment that makes direct use of gAI outputs as informational sources, gAI outputs may be useful as a starting point for research-based assignments, but they should not be used as sources for academic work because academic work is founded on the ability to track and credit the verifiable works and ideas of humans.