How to Reference GenAI
How do I cite AI-generated content in my assessments?
It is best not to use GenAI as a source for your assessments, so you should not be directly referencing anything it produces as a source. You should be researching more credible and authoritative material and cite those as a reference.
Note: There are times you may wish to directly cite GenAI (you may wish to quote the output of ChatGPT as an example of the kinds of material that can be produced by GenAI, in opposition to Human-created work, or may have been asked by your Lecturer to prompt ChatGPT, include its output, then demonstrate how you would edit the GenAI response.)
If you have been asked to directly cite GenAI, the American Psychological Association (producers for APA 7th Edition Referencing Style as used at ECU) suggest formatting your reference as:
Company. (Year). Name of the Service (Version) [Description of the tool]. URL
For example:
OpenAI. (2022). ChatGPT (Version 3) [AI text generation tool]. https://chat.openai.com/
You can check out the Library Referencing Guide at "Software/apps, code, datasets, and AI tools" for more.
Acknowledging your use of GenAI
However, if you use generative AI like a tool to help your study and research process (as already discussed), you must still acknowledge the use you have put it to.
In your assessment, you may wish to include the activities you have used GenAI for, and may include the exact prompts you used (as well as including an appendix with the full GenAI response where necessary.) This in-text acknowledgement is helpful where the use of the tool is a part of the requested task, and your Lecturer has asked you to engage with GenAI as a part of the assessment.
An example would be:
"ChatGPT (May 24 Version) was used to brainstorm ideas and I assessed its results for biases..." or,
"Images used in this presentation to demonstrate GenAI hallucinations were created using DALL-E."
See the Library Referencing Guide at "Software/apps, code, datasets, and AI tools" for more detail on acknowledging the use of GenAI in your work.
You must also acknowledge any use of GenAI in your assessment when you are submitting, by selecting the 'Add comment' button at the top of the submission page and including a similar statement as above:
Academic Misconduct
GenAI is very new, and you may be identified as having used a tool like ChatGPT when you have not. It is best practice to work via drafts and keep notes of how you wrote your assessment, so that you can prove your own work.
Not giving credit to GenAI tools counts as plagiarism. If you get caught, you could get anything from a warning letter to losing marks, failing the assignment, or even more serious actions like being suspended.
See ECU policies on Academic Misconduct.
