At this time, the MLA says that you should “cite a generative AI tool whenever you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate into your own work any content (whether text, image, data, or other) that was created by it.” More details about the MLA’s guidance can be found on the MLA Style Center post How do I cite generative AI in MLA style?
Your Works Cited list entry should consist of the following elements:
- Author: The MLA currently says that they “do not recommend treating the AI tool as an author,” so the first element of your Works Cited list entry should be the source’s title.
- Title of Source: Describe what the AI tool generated. Include information about the prompt that you entered into the tool if you didn’t do so in the body of your paper.
- Title of Container: List the name of the tool that you used (e.g., ChatGPT).
- Version: List as specifically as possible the version of the tool that you used. ChatGPT currently provides dates for versions, for example, so a Works Cited entry for ChatGPT should list the date of the version used.
- Publisher: List the name of the company that made the tool that you used. For example, OpenAI is the creator of ChatGPT.
- Date: List the date that you used the tool to generate content, following MLA date formatting rules.
- Location: If the tool that you used provides a unique URL that could be used to retrieve the content that you generated, include that URL; if not, provide the URL of the tool’s home page, following MLA URL formatting rules.
See example below.
“Describe the use of irony in Joseph Heller’s book Catch-22” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.
In-text citation:
(“Describe the use of irony”)