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MLA Style Guide 9th Edition

Introduction

Use this template to quote or reproduce the image content generated by AI in your paper. 

Best practices recommended by the MLA Style Center: 

  • When incorporating the image in your work, caption the AI generated image as outlined in section 1.7 of the MLA Handbook. For an example of the caption, please visit the In-text Citation Format tab below
  • Entry in the works-cited-list is optional for AI generated image. If you choose not to create a works-cited-list entry for your image, you must include all information in your caption
  • Depending on the tool's features, include the URL directly to the image used, or if not possible, include the general URL to the tool 

Citing Image Content Created by AI

Applying MLA's Template to cite generative AI 

Author

MLA does not recommend treating AI tool as an author

Title of Source

Description of AI-generated content, such as the prompt if not already done in the text

Title of Container

Name of AI tool, such as ChatGPT 

Version

The version of the model/tool used. NOTE: the format for the version number in ChatGPT example includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labelling versions

Publisher

Name of company that developed the tool

Date

Date the content was generated

Location

Provide the general URL for the tool

TEMPLATE

As caption

Fig. X. "Description of AI-generated content" description type. Name of AI tool, version, author, date, location. 

 

As works cited

"Description of AI-generated content" description type. Name of AI tool, version, author, date, location. 

 

 

EXAMPLE

As caption

Fig. 1. "A photo of a teddy bear on a skateboard in Times Square" prompt, DALL-E, version 2, version 2, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, https://openai.com/dall-e-2

 

As works cited

"A photo of a teddy bear on a skateboard in Times Square" prompt, DALL-E, version 2, version 2, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, https://openai.com/dall-e-2

 

Recommendation for incorporating AI generated image in-text is outlined below:

Reference Information  "A photo of a teddy bear on a skateboard in Times Square" prompt, DALL-E, version 2, version 2, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, https://openai.com/dall-e-2
Inserting the AI-generated image in coursework

Example

Fig. 1. "A photo of a teddy bear on a skateboard in Times Square" prompt, DALL-E, version 2, version 2, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, https://openai.com/dall-e-2