How to Cite AI in APA, MLA and Chicago

All three major styles published guidance on generative AI in 2023. They differ mainly on who or what counts as the author. APA (guidance posted on the APA Style blog in April 2023) treats the company that built the model as the author. A reference looks like this: OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat. The in-text citation is (OpenAI, 2023). APA asks writers to describe the prompt in the text. For long responses, it suggests putting the full exchange in an appendix so readers can see what the model produced. MLA (guidance published in March 2023) says not to treat the AI as an author. The title slot gets a description of what was generated, usually the prompt in quotation marks. After that come the tool as the container, its version, the publisher, the date the content was generated, and the location. The in-text citation uses a shortened form of that title. MLA also asks writers to acknowledge non-quoted uses, such as editing help, in a note or in the text. Chicago generally cites AI output in a note. For example: 1. ChatGPT, response to "Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients," OpenAI, March 7, 2023. If the prompt is already given in your text, the note can be shorter. Chicago usually leaves AI output out of the bibliography because readers can't retrieve the conversation, treating it much like a personal communication. A publicly shareable link may change that. A common misconception is that citing an AI makes its claims reliable. It doesn't. If ChatGPT describes a study, find the study and cite that instead. Another is that the style guide decides whether you can use AI at all. Your instructor's or publisher's policy decides that first.