You will need to check with your Lecturer/Unit Coordinator or consult your unit descriptions to confirm whether you are permitted to use Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT in your unit assessments. Units taught at MIT may differ as to the permitted usage of AI tools.
Warning: some AI tools will generate fictional references, that may appear real, and may use real journal titles and corresponding citation details, but the articles will be non-existent. Care should be taken when quoting citations from AI tools.
The APA style notes indicate that if you have used AI tools for your research, you should describe how you used the tool in the research methodology section of your paper, or another comparable section depending on the format of your work.
The results of ChatGPT and other AI generative tools are not reproducible so cannot be verified. The personal communication reference type is not applicable in this sense as there is no person communicating information.
Generally any APA reference for the generative AI reference style will need enough information to understand which AI tools was used, the date it was used, the type of AI tool and the author of the tool.
How to reference AI generated material
Here are the basic formats for referencing AI tools used in your papers. The grey boxes highlight the information that needs to change in each reference. You do not include them in your own work.
Pay close attention to the punctuation and capitalisation in each of the formats and the examples below.
Citation format for use of Generative AI
In text citation
When prompted with "Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?" the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, "the notation that people can be characterized as 'left-brained' or 'right-brained' is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth" (OpenAI, 2023)
Reference list format
Author. (year). Title of AI tool. (Version) [Type or description of AI Model]. Web address of AI.
Style Notes
- Author: the company/person who produced the AU software
- Date: The year of the version
- Title: The name of the particular AI tool
- Version: You will need to add here the version of the software - which will be referenced differently depending on the software.
- Bracketed text: This is an additional description which may be needed in some cases to assist a reader understand the material cited. Common sources like article or books will not need this, but reference to AI may need addition information here to indicated what the software tool is.
- For more detailed information, see the official APA Style Manual's current (as at April 7 2023) directions on citing APA here.
