Content generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) software is an evolving field, and APA's official advice is still being developed and debated. The following advice is interim advice given by the APA Style Experts, and is subject to change. Please check back to see if the advice has changed.
This is the advice as of April 13, 2023:
This advice is for content produced by Generative Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT, in which the material is not recoverable (that is, the person reading your paper cannot find the material using the referencing details).
As ChatGPT (and similar tools) produce material that is not recoverable, you cannot cite the material itself - but since it is not information communicated to you by a person, you cannot treat it as personal communication.
Instead, make a reference in the text to the use of the software, and then cite the software. If using content generated by the software, use quotation marks or a block quote as you would for any other quoted text.
Examples:
In Text:
ChatGPT was used to summarise the results of the articles, and found there was "no statistically significant difference between the two methods" (OpenAI, 2023).
In the Reference List:
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
Example of text-image generation:
In Text:
Image of robot holding a flower generated using Midjourney (2023).
In the Reference List:
Midjourney. (2023). Midjourney (V5) [Text-to-image model]. https://www.midjourney.com/
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