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Artificial Intelligence (AI)

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APA Style Citing AI-Created Image Content

APA style currently does not have an official guideline on citing AI generated images. Your instructor may provide detailed guidelines for including AI-generated images in your assignment.  If not, check the suggestions below:

  • Describe how you used the tool in your Method section or Introduction
  • Provide the prompt you used in the Note under the Figure (image)
  • When including a specific image, include a reference list entry for the in-text image

For example, your Method or Introduction could include a general acknowledgement such as: 

I acknowledge the use of DALL-E by OpenAI (https://openai.com/index/dall-e-3/) to help me create images suitable for my paper on the topic of depicting toy animals behaving as humans.

See the References List & In-text Citations tabs above when citing specific images in your paper.

 

TEMPLATE:

AI Company Name. (Year). Tool Name/Model in Italics and Title Case [Description; e.g., Image model]. https://source_address

 

EXAMPLE 1 

OpenAI. (2025). DALL-E [Image model]. https://openai.com/dall-e-2

 

EXAMPLE 2 

Microsoft. (2025). Designer [Design model]. https://designer.microsoft.com/

 

In-text citation template 

  • Parenthetical citation: (AI Company Name, year)

  • Narrative citation: AI Company Name (year)

In-text citation Examples

  • Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2025)

  • Narrative citation: OpenAI (2025)

Notes:  

  • Author: The company responsible for developing the AI tool. For example, OpenAI is the author of the AI tool Dall-E
  • Date: Year of the version used
  • Title: The title is the name of the AI tool, which can be general (e.g., Dall-E or Midjourney) or the name of the model (e.g., DALL-E 3 or Gemini 2.5 Flash).
  • Link: Provide the general URL of the tool
Parenthetical and narrative in-text citation examples 

In DALL-E, using the prompt "a photo of a teddy bear on a skateboard in Times Square," the photograph generated in Figure 1 was created (OpenAI, 2023).

OR

Figure 1 depicts the image generated by the prompt "a photo of a teddy bear on a skateboard in Times Square" (OpenAI, 2023).

 

Adding an AI-generated image in your paper 

In APA, a figure (image) may be either:

1) embedded in the text after it is first mentioned (“called out”); OR
2) placed on a separate page after the reference list.

If embedded in the text, place the figure at either the top or bottom of the page rather than in the middle. The figure should be left-aligned, not centred.

If you have more than one figure and you choose to include them after the reference list, then each figure should be on a separate page, left-aligned, formatted as the figure of the teddy bear on the right.

Provide the following information: 

  • Figure number
  • Figure/image Title
  • Note. Below the image provide details about the prompt and the source
  • Reference list entry starts with Author (e.g. OpenAI)

 

Figure 1

Teddy Bear on a Skateboard

Note. Image generated using the prompt "A photo of a teddy bear on a skateboard in Times Square," by OpenAI, DALL-E, 2023 (https://openai.com/dall-e-2)