Citing an AI generator is not as straight forward as citing a book, article, video, or even a podcast. AI is not an author, but you do have to let your reader know where you got your information.
It is good practice to include your prompt in your works cited. Here is an example of a prompt with the researcher's summary of ChatGPT's response. A snippit of ChatGPT's full response to the question follows.
ChatGPT: The "generation gap" is both a real phenomenon and a metaphor.
In a concrete sense, it's real because every generation grows up with different historical events, technological advancements, social norms, and cultural trends that shape their beliefs, values, and ways of interacting with the world.
On the other hand, "generation gap" is also a metaphor. It's often used to describe a symbolic distance between the perspectives of younger and older people.
APA Citation: OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Month Day version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat.
MLA citation: “Is the generation gap a real gap or a metaphor?” prompt. ChatGPT, Day Month version, OpenAI, 12 Nov. 2024, chat.openai.com/chat.
Chicago style recommends citing ChatGPT in a Chicago footnote.
Chicago style footnote without a prompt: ChatGPT, response to “Is the generation gap a real gap or a metaphor,” OpenAI, November 12, 2024.
NOTE: " ... don’t cite ChatGPT in a bibliography or reference list unless you provide a publicly available link (e.g., via a browser extension like ShareGPT or A.I. Archives). Though OpenAI assigns unique URLs to conversations generated from your prompts, those can’t be used by others to access the same content (they require your login credentials), making a ChatGPT conversation like an email, phone, or text conversation—or any other type of personal communication."
Harvard style: OpenAI (2024) ChatGPT (GPT‑4o version) [Large language model], accessed 12 November 2024. See appendix for prompt used and text generated.
IEEE AI Guidelines: The use of content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) in an article (including but not limited to text, figures, images, and code) shall be disclosed in the acknowledgments section of any article submitted to an IEEE publication. The AI system used shall be identified, and specific sections of the article that use AI-generated content shall be identified and accompanied by a brief explanation regarding the level at which the AI system was used to generate the content.