The University of Iowa defines academic misconduct as a violation and misbehavior of academic material. This includes plagiarism and cheating. Before using AI tools, you should review the University's Academic Misconduct Policies, the Graduate College Policy on Plagiarism, and current AI Guidelines. 

While AI tools may have their benefits, the information that they generate is not your own and, as such, requires a citation. 

This short video outlines ways to verify citations that are generated by AI

As of February 2024, APA recommends citing the developer of the AI tool as the "author" of generated information while the name of the tool will be reflected as the "publisher".

Because the chat record is not retrievable by other users and has no real human speaker, the APA treats AI text generation like an algorithm. Your full citation on your reference page would be structured like the following:

OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (April 10 version), [Large Language Model]. http://chat.openai.com/chat. 

Your in-text citation would include the developer of the AI tool and the year the information was generated. For example:

When prompted with the question "Is the right brain left brain divide real?", the Chat-GPT-generated text indicated that while the hemispheres of the brain are specialized, the notion that people could be described as being "right-brained" or "left-brained" is an oversimplification (OpenAI, 2025). 

APA also recommends that you attach the full text of chat-generated responses at the back of your paper as an appendix so that other readers and researchers can see exactly the prompts that were used. More information about formatting full reference citations, in-text citations, and how to acknowledge AI in academic writing can be found in their article on citing ChatGPT. 

Chicago Manual of Style also recommends crediting ChatGPT and similar AI tools when you use the information they generate in your own work.

For best practices, you should cite the name of the tool you use as the "author" and the developer as the "publisher". 

If you are using footnote citations with Chicago formatting, your note-style citation in your work may look like: 

1. Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, March 24, 2025. http://chat.openai.com/chat/.

If you are using author-date style citations with Chicago formatting, your parenthetical citation would look like the following: 

(ChatGPT, March 24, 2025).

However, you do not need to cite ChatGPT or similar tools in your full reference or bibliography when using Chicago Style Citations. This is because the URLs they assign for specific conversations cannot be accessed by the public, and the general link to their website would be seen as nonessential information. More information about citing and documenting AI can be found in The Chicago Manual of Style Online. 

MLA Style does not recommend using the name of the AI tool as the author.

Your full citation will be created using the following elements:

• A title, created from a brief description of the information that was generated from your prompt.
• The name of the AI tool and its current version as the "Title of Container"
• The creator of the AI tool as the "Publisher"
• The URL provided is the general link to the website or tool, as the public cannot access the conversation generated directly

An example would look like the following:

"Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Schott Fitzgerald" prompt. ChatGPT 3.5, Open AI, 8 Mar. 2025, chat.openai.com/chat. 

Your in-text citations will be made up of a shorted title (again, describing the prompt you used) that can direct readers to the full Work-Cited entry. Related to the full reference above, a parenthetical citation within your paper would look like the following:

While the green light in The Great Gatsby can be seen to symbolize greed and jealousy, it also serves as a reminder of the unattainability of the American Dream and social otherness experienced by the New Money families of the 20th century ("Describe the symbolism").

More information about citing AI tools in MLA format can be found on their website.