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Citing Generative AI

Use this guide to help you correctly cite output from generative AI and large language models like Gemini, ChatGPT, and more

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Chicago Manual of Style

The Chicago Manual of Style provides guidelines for writing and citing across many academic disciplines. Chicago-style citations come in two varieties:

  1. Notes and Bibliography: Uses footnotes or endnotes with a bibliography. 
  2. Author-Date: Uses parenthetical in-text citations with a bibliography. The use of this style is more rare. Check with your instructor before choosing this version of Chicago Manual of Style. 

Want a quick overview with examples? Check out the Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide. 

For a more in-depth overview of Chicago Style, check out the Chicago Style section of our Citing Sources guide. 

Citing Generative AI in Chicago Style

Chicago Manual of Style 18 has explicit instructions for how to cite generative AI models like ChatGPT. Unlike their previous blog posts, Chicago 18 recommends that you do not cite generative AI in formal citations, such as footnotes, endnotes, a bibliography, or parenthetical citations. However, you do still need to acknowledge the generative AI tool you used. 

In order to correctly cite ChatGPT or similar tools, include the AI tool use in your text, such as:

"The following recipe for pizza dough was generated by ChatGPT 3.5." 

If you are unable to work the acknowledgemnt of generative AI use into your text, you should use a less formal citation, examples here: 

Notes and Bibliography style, in-text (footnote or endnote)

If you have included the prompt or explanation in your text but want to include a more formal citation, the footnote or endnote would look like this:

1. Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, March 7, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/chat.

If your text prompt hasn’t been included in the text, it should be included in the note:

1. ChatGPT, response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients,” OpenAI, March 7, 2023.

Author-Date, in-text

Because author-date does not provide room for extra context in the way notes and bibliography style does, you should always include your text prompt in the text of your writing.

An in-text example for author-date style will look as follows:

(ChatGPT, March 7, 2023)

Bibliography and Reference List

Unlike MLA and APA, you are not always expected to include a bibliographic citation of generative AI content in your Chicago style bibliography or reference list. It is encouraged, but only if you are able to provide an exact link to your prompt. The links provided to you by tools such as ChatGPT are locked to your login and cannot be accessed by others, so if you are unable to provide a more general link (using another tool, such as ShareGPT or A.I. Archives) you can skip this step.