Artificial Intelligence Generated Text & Images
Speak to your professor for clarification on how and when it is appropriate to cite generative artificial intelligence tools. For general guidelines, refer to Acknowledging Generative AI.
The use of an AI text generator should be noted in the body of the paper and reference list.
General Pattern
Group/Company Name. (Year that the prompt was created). Name of the Tool (Month and Date that the prompt was created) [Large language model]. URL.
In-text: (Group/Company Name, Year)
Text Generator
OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (March 3) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
In-text: (OpenAI, 2024)
This example is adapted from section 10.10 from the Publication Manual.
The use of an image generator should be noted in the body of the paper and reference list. Refer to Tables and Figures for guidelines on how to display images as figures in your assignments.
Example Figure
Figure 3
Elegant and whimsical floral and bird illustration
Note. Image generated using the prompt "A cubism-style illustration that depicts flowers, plants, birds and insects" from Adobe Firefly, 2025 (https://firefly.adobe.com).
Attribution
Include information about your prompt and the AI tool you used in the Note section.
Note. Image generated using the prompt "prompt in quotation marks", from Name of AI Tool, Year (URL of tool).
Reference & In-text Citation
Adobe. (2025). Adobe Firefly (November 3) [Diffusion model]. https://firefly.adobe.com/
In-text: (Adobe, 2025)
This example was adapted from section 7.22-7.36 from the Publication Manual and Purdue University Libraries’ Artificial Intelligence Guide.
Your professor may ask you to make the ChatGPT conversation, or other AI generated text, retrievable by including it as an appendix in your assignment. The appendix requires a leading statement in the body of your paper and an introductory sentence in your appendix. Be sure to include a reference list entry for the AI model in the references list.
In-Text
ChatGPT software was used on March 3, 2023 to generate text using the prompt "Summarize the personalities of the most important characters in Call of the Wild” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).
Appendix
The following text was generated on March 3, 2023, by ChatGPT software (OpenAI, 2023) in response to the prompt "Summarize the personalities of the most important characters in Call of the Wild”.
If your professor did not require a formal citation style for acknowledging AI-generated images, you still need to provide an acknowledgement. Beneath the image, include a note about the prompt and source information.
Image generated in Adobe Firefly on November 3, 2025 using the prompt "A cubism-style illustration that depicts flowers, plants, birds and insects."
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