Katherine McGittigan
The major citation styles are working hard to keep up with the developments in AI and how they recommend citing AI-generated content. While MLA and APA both offered some initial guidance a couple of years ago, they recently made some changes to how they suggest citing content from ChatGPT, Gemini, and other such generative AI.
The biggest change is that you are now expected to cite the particular chat conversation itself, since most major chatbots now provide a stable link to refer back to the conversation. Check out these resources to learn more about citing AI in each style.
APA Style
Quick summary: Cite a specific chat just as you would any other text source, treating the company who built the chatbot as the author.
MLA Style
Quick summary: Cite the specific chat, but do NOT use the chatbot or company as an author. Instead, it's cited more like a website without an author.
Chicago Style
Quick summary: Treat chatbot conversations like personal communications and only include within your footnotes/endnotes, and not in the bibliography.
