VCSU Library Citation Guide

About Generative AI and MLA Style

The MLA style center's guide to citing AI offers a useful overview of what to know when citing generative AI in MLA . In addition to citing AI tools, you need to include the ways you used the tool in your paper. You can use a note, or put the information directly into the text, just make sure you are acknowledging all the functions of generative AI that went into your work. 

Example: ChatGPT was used as a research tool in the writing of this paper. 

Keep in mind that if your professor has asked you not to use generative AI for an assignment, don't use it. You should only use generative AI tools if given permission by your professor.

Using the MLA template to cite AI

Just as with any source in MLA, the elements of a citation can be applied to citing generative AI.

Author: 

Generative AI tools should not be listed as an author in citations. Skip the author element, just like you would with a web page or any other source without an author. 

Source Title:

The "title" of an AI generated source is most often a description of the prompt. You should put the description of the prompt in

quotation marks, then follow the prompt with the word prompt. 

Example - "Provide a description of each step in the scientific method" prompt. 

Container Title:

The container title when citing generative AI is the name of the AI tool you used, for example ChatGPT, CoPilot, or Gemini.

Version: 

Along with the AI tool, you need to include the version of the tool you used. The version number helps identify when information was generated. 

Publisher:

Put the company that made your tool of choice in the publisher field. 

Date:

Include the date the AI tool was used. Format the date as day month, year.

URL:

Most of the time, you will use the general URL for the AI tool as the URL in a citation. If your AI tool does provide an archived version of the prompt generation, use that URL instead of the more general one.

Citing AI generated Images

Just as with any image used in a paper, any images generated using an AI tool should have a caption. The caption should include a description of the prompt, the tool used and version, the maker of the tool, the date the image was generated, and a link to the tool. 

Fig.1. "Generate an impressionist painting of a purple house on a prairie" prompt, DALL-E, version 3, OpenAI, 10 Jun. 2025, https://www.dall-efree.com/.