The Chicago Manual of Style provides guidelines for writing and citing across many academic disciplines. Chicago-style citations come in two varieties:
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.
Chicago Manual of Style is working on incorporating generative AI and LLM citations into the style formally, but for now has general guidelines for both text and image based AI generated content. We will summarize the information here, but recommend that you read the full Q&A pages for full context and to create correct citations.
This style is the most common usage of Chicago Manual of Style citation.
For in-text references, either in footnote or endnote, examples:
The LLM or generative AI model should stand in as your "author," and the company that created or developed that model should be the publisher or sponsor, plus the date that the information was generated. You should also include a URL for the tool, which will help others down the line connect to that tool directly. You should also always include your text prompt to the engine in the text of your writing or in the citation. If your text prompt has been included in your writing, an example will look as follows:
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 can 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 style is used less frequently, but if you are using it for your assignment, you would follow the general parameters of the in-text citation. Again, the tool itself will be listed as the author, and the date you generated the content will stand in as the date. In the case of author-date, you should 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)
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.