LibGuides: How to Cite in APA Style (7th Edition): Cite AI Content

Citing AI-generated text

APA style

Guideline from APA:

How to cite ChatGPT - APA Style Blog (updated on Feb 23, 2024)

Suggested practices:

1. Cite AI-generated text

cite the content as software or algorithm's output (rather than personal communication as there's no actual person communicating)
describe how you used ChatGPT or other AI models in the Method or Introduction of your work
include the prompt used and any relevant generated text in your paper
for long responses, consider including them in an appendix

Example:

Conversation with an AI model

In-text citation & Reference list

In-text citation

"ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, focuses on generating human-like text based on extensive internet-trained data, while Claude, developed by Anthropic, emphasizes safety and alignment through constitutional AI principles, aiming to reduce harmful outputs by adhering to a set of predefined ethical guidelines." (OpenAI, 2024)

Reference list

OpenAI. (2024). GPT-4o [Large language model]. https://poe.com/GPT-4o

2. Cite AI model (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude)

cite the model or tool as software

Examples:

Reference list

OpenAI. (2024). GPT-4o [Large language model]. https://poe.com/GPT-4o

Anthropic. (2024). Claude-3.5-Sonnet [Large language model]. https://poe.com/Claude-3.5-Sonnet

Perplexity. (2024). Perplexity.ai [Large language model]. https://www.perplexity.ai/

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

Citing AI-generated images

APA style

Guideline from APA:

There is no official guideline on citing AI-generated images.
However, the APA Style blog How to cite ChatGPT (updated Feb 23, 2024), and their replies in the Comment section provides some general advice.

General advice:

Explain the methodology of how you used the AI tool in your work (e.g. the prompt you used)
To create the reference, follow the principles of citing AI-generated text to determine the author, date, title, and source elements for the tool.

Basic format:

Cite the image (in caption):

Figure X
Image title
[the image]
Note. Description (e.g. Image generated using XXX prompt, by XXX tool)

For reference format of citing figures or images in general, you may also refer to APA guidelines on citing Clip Art or Stock Image References, Artwork references, and Sample figures.

Cite the AI model:

Author/Developer. (Year). Name of AI tool (Version) [AI image generation model]. URL

Example:

Conversation with an AI image generation model

Caption, In-text citation & Reference list

Figure 1

Night View Skyline

Note. Image generated using the prompt "skyscraper buildings in Hong Kong, night view, oil painting," by Stability AI, Stable Diffusion XL, 2024 (https://poe.com/StableDiffusionXL).

In-text citation:

Figure 1 illustrates the intensity of Hong Kong's cityscape and its architectural character (Stability AI, 2024).

Reference list:

Stability AI. (2024). Stable Diffusion XL [AI image generation model]. https://poe.com/StableDiffusionXL