Great World Texts: Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 : Citing and Evaluating Sources

Current APA (American Psychological Association) guidance on citing generative AI includes the following:

Citing a specific generative AI chat

Reference section: 

AI Company Name. (year, month day). Title of chat in italics [Description, such as Generative AI chat]. Tool Name/Model. URL of the chat

Examples:

Google. (2025, December 2025). Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients [Google Gemini chat]. Gemini 2.5 Pro. 

Open AI. (2025. December 2025). 10 fun citation style tips [ChatGPT chat]. ChatGPT 5.0. https://chatgpt.com/s/t_6938a4f4af248191923aa90a0f856f53

In-text citation:

• Parenthetical citation: (AI Company Name, year)
• Narrative citation: AI Company Name (year)

Examples:

When prompted for advice on making pizza, Gemini recommends supplementing cheese with glue (Google, 2025).

When prompted for advice on making pizza, Google Gemini (2025) recommends supplementing cheese with glue.  

NOTE: APA does not make direct recommendations for cases in which the tool does not generate a stable URL for specific chats (which currently includes the institutionally-licensed versions of Microsoft 365 Copilot and Google Gemini). If citing output from one of these tools, you may choose to include your prompts and output in an appendix or seek more specific guidance from your instructor or editor. 

Citing a generative AI tool generally: 

Reference section:

AI Company Name. (year). Tool Name/Model in Italics and Title Case [Description; e.g., Large language model]. URL of the tool

Example:

Google (2025). Google Gemini 2.5 Pro [Large language model]. https://gemini.google.com

In-text citation:

• Parenthetical citation: (AI Company Name, year)
• Narrative citation: AI Company Name (year)

Examples:

The researchers prompted both Gemini and ChatGPT (Google, 2025; OpenAI, 2025) for pizza-making advice.

The researchers prompted commercial LLM chatbots offered by Google (2025) and OpenAI (2025) for pizza-making advice.  

Documenting prompts

APA suggests the following in terms of including or not including prompts directly in your work:

Researchers should document the prompts used with AI tools for their own records. To the extent that it helps readers, these prompts can be included where the AI use is disclosed, or elsewhere as appropriate, such as in an appendix or supplemental material. Whether that’s appropriate and useful for readers is a decision you should make in conjunction with your editor or instructor.

For more information on APA citation guidelines on generative AI, please refer to the link below. 

The Chicago Manual of Style suggests that authors using AI-generated content must specify how it was used in the text or a preface. Chatbot conversations should be treated as personal communications or social media posts and cited in the text or a note. Chatbot conversations generally should not be included in a bibliography or reference list. 

The chatbot (along with version number) should be treated as the author and the company should be treated as the publisher or developer. Include a URL if a publicly archived copy of the conversation exists and include the date on which the content was generated. 

NOTE: Chicago does not make direct recommendations for cases in which the tool does not generate a stable URL for specific chats (which currently includes the institutionally-licensed versions of Microsoft 365 Copilot and Google Gemini). If citing output from one of these tools, you may choose to include your prompts and output in an appendix or seek more specific guidance from your instructor or editor. 

Cited in the text: 

The following recipe for pizza dough was generated on December 9, 2025, by Gemini 2.5 Pro.

Cited in a note: 

1. Text generated by Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google, December 9, 2025.

2. Text generated by ChatGPT-3.5, OpenAI, December 9, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/share/90b8137d-ff1c-4c0c-b123-2868623c4ae2

If not included in the text, you may add a prompt or a summary of multiple prompts to a note: 

3. Response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients,” Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google, December 9, 2025, edited for style and accuracy.

If the AI conversation must be included in a bibliography or reference list for any reason, cite it under the name of the publisher or developer rather than the name of the tool. Include a publicly available URL, if possible. 

Google. Response to "Why are URLs so hard to produce?" Gemini 1.0, February 10, 2024.

OpenAI. Response to "10 fun citation style tips," ChatGPT 5.0, December 9, 2025. https://chatgpt.com/s/t_6938a4f4af248191923aa90a0f856f53

For more information on Chicago guidelines for AI-generated content, please refer to the link below. 

MLA has released preliminary guidance for citing generative AI in different contexts. According to MLA, you should cite a generative AI tool when paraphrasing, quoting, or incorporating it into your work and acknowledge functional uses of the tool in your text or other location. Do not include an author in your citation and treat a description of the content as the title of the source, as if it were an article or chapter title. 

In-text citation example:

While the green light in The Great Gatsby might be said to chiefly symbolize four main things: optimism, the unattainability of the American dream, greed, and covetousness (“Describe the symbolism”), arguably the most important—the one that ties all four themes together—is greed.

Reference section example:

“Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.

For details on more specific uses, such as citing AI-generated visual works, AI-generated creative works such as poetry, and secondary sources cited by AI, please refer directly to MLA guidance.