This guide provides an overview of what generative AI is and how students can become more literate users of generative AI tools like ChatGPT.
A teacher and a librarian discuss how the ACRL Information Literacy Framework can help promote AI literacy.
Get up-to-date guidance on whether and how you should cite generative AI in MLA style.
Find out about describing substantive use of AI in your work.
The MLA editors answer whether you should cite Google’s AI Overviews feature like a source.
Source: MLA Style Center
"In “Using the MLA Template” below, we have updated how to use the MLA template of core elements to cite generative AI. One of two significant changes we’ve made is clarifying that providing a stable, shareable URL to the AI conversation you are citing is preferred, but a general link to the AI tool can be provided if that stable URL feature isn’t available in the tool you are using. The other significant change is that we recommend that the AI tool’s model name or number be included in the Version element. So, for example, the works-cited-list examples in this post cite the GPT-4o model of ChatGPT.
We’re also providing new example citations below. The examples reflect newer ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Copilot models, and we’ve also provided additional guidance to clarify citing secondary sources used by AI."
We do not recommend treating the AI tool as an author. This recommendation follows the policies developed by various publishers, including the MLA’s journal PMLA.
Describe what was generated by the AI tool. This may involve including information about the prompt in the Title of Source element if you have not done so in the text.
Use the Title of Container element to name the AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT).
Name the specific AI model or model version as specifically as possible. For instance, the examples in this post were developed using the GPT-4o model of ChatGPT.
Name the company that made the tool.
Give the date the content was generated.
Give the stable, shareable URL for accessing the generated content (e.g., text, an image, etc.). For example, tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E allow you to share a link by clicking the Share link at the top of the chat conversation. If the tool you are using doesn’t provide a stable, shareable URL, provide the general URL for the tool.
“Nature in Mansfield Park often mirrors the personalities or inner states of the characters. The different environments – Mansfield Park, Sotherton, and the wilderness at the parsonage – are symbolic of the moral choices and the values of the people who inhabit them.”
In Mansfield Park, physical locations like Mansfield Park and Sotherton reflect the morality and choices of the people who live in them (“Describe the theme”).
“Describe the theme of nature in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park” prompt. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1b0a0-d704-8000-be9a-85f53c850607.
“Nature in Mansfield Park often mirrors the personalities or inner states of the characters. The different environments – Mansfield Park, Sotherton, and the wilderness at the parsonage – are symbolic of the moral choices and the values of the people who inhabit them.”
Nature is depicted frequently throughout Mansfield Park, and it “often mirrors the personalities or inner states of the characters” (“Describe the theme”).
“Describe the theme of nature in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park” prompt. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1b0a0-d704-8000-be9a-85f53c850607.
While we’ve provided fairly detailed descriptions of the prompts above, a more general one (e.g., Theme of nature in Austen’s Mansfield Park prompt) could be used, since you are describing something that mimics a conversation, which could have various prompts along the way.
If you are incorporating an AI-generated image in your work, you will likely need to create a caption for it following the guidelines in section 1.7 of the MLA Handbook. Use a description of the prompt, followed by the AI tool, model name or version, and date created:
Fig. 1. “Create an expressionist-style image of two people standing on a beach looking at the ocean” prompt, DALL-E, version 3, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1c3a3-3f90-8000-9750-82c57c4a6592.
You can use this same information if you choose to create a works-cited-list entry instead of including the full citation in the caption (see MLA Handbook, sec. 1.7).
If you ask a generative AI tool to create a work, like a poem, how you cite it will depend on whether you assign a title to it. Let’s say, for example, you ask ChatGPT to write a free verse poem titled “The Oak Tree” that—you guessed it!—describes an oak tree and then quote it in your text. Your works-cited-list entry might look like this:
“The Oak Tree” free verse poem. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1c740-7500-8000-a38b-6d6045c811f5.
If you did not title the work, incorporate part of or all of the first line into the description of the work in the Title of Source element:
“The autumn leaves fall softly to the ground . . .” sonnet about autumn. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1ce9d-0b38-8000-a209-112496d3e0b1.
For guidance on using descriptions and text from the work itself in the Title of Source element, see the MLA Handbook, 5.28 and 5.29.
Work Cited
“How do I cite generative AI in MLA style? (Updated and Revised).” MLA Style Center, 13 Aug. 2025. https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai-updated-revised.