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Getting Started with AI

Learn how to use generative AI effectively and safely.

MLA Guidelines for AI

MLA has created a set of core elements that should be used when citing any document and works created using generative AI technologies. For example, ChatGPT should be adopted into that template. MLA uses this definition of generative AI from Julie Weed of the New York Times:  "A tool that can analyze or summarize content from a huge set of information, including web pages, books and other writing available on the internet, and use that data to create original new content."

Cite any content that was created using a generative AI tool and acknowledge how the tool was used, whether it was summarizing, paraphrasing, editing, or translating. MLA recommends checking the secondary sources that the AI tool used for accuracy.  

You can directly read the MLA guidelines for citing generative AI at the MLA website.

Last updated 8/26/2024

MLA Works Cited Page

Here is MLA's guide to applying its citation template to AI-generated content. 

MLA Core Elements, in order of placement in the citation:

  1. Author.  - MLA does not recommend treating the AI tools as authors, so this is left blank. 
  2. Title of Source.  - a description of what was generated by AI including the prompt used. If it is specifically asked to generate text that can be titled, such as poems or short stories, use the preferred title as well as a description of the prompt.  
  3. Title of Container, -  name the AI tool used (example: ChatGPT)
  4. Other Contributors,
  5. Version,  - name the version of the tool used 
  6. Number,
  7. Publisher, - name the company that made the AI tool
  8. Publication date, - give the date the content was generated
  9. Location - give the general URL for the AI tool used 

 

Here are examples of entries from a works cited page: 

For a prompt asking what is the symbolism of green light in The Great Gatsby:

“Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.

For an AI-generated image use the same guideline:

“Pointillist painting of a sheep in a sunny field of blue flowers” prompt, DALL-E, version 2, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, labs.openai.com/.

For the prompt "write a limerick about a sunflower":

“The Sunflower” limerick about a sunflower. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat. 

Last updated 8/26/2024

MLA In Text Citations

Because MLA does not recommend treating an AI tool as an author, parenthetical in-text citations of AI-generated text should simply use the format of ("title") as there is no page number either. Remember that MLA states the title of source should be a description of what was generated including the prompt used. A shortened version of the title should be used if the title is lengthy. 

 

Here is an example of an in-text citation for AI-generated text:

For the prompt “Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald”:

While the green light in The Great Gatsby might be said to chiefly symbolize four main things: optimism, the unattainability of the American dream, greed, and covetousness (“Describe the symbolism”), arguably the most important—the one that ties all four themes together—is greed.

 Last updated 8/26/2024