As a student, am I allowed to use a Gen-AI tool like ZotGPT in my coursework?
The UCI Policy on Academic Integrity for students states:
“All students are expected to complete a course in compliance with the Instructor's standards. No student shall engage in any activity involving any Academic Integrity Policy Violations. No student shall engage in any activity that involves attempting to receive a grade by means other than honest effort, and shall not aid another student who is attempting to do so.”
Before you use any AI tool, ask yourself:
If you have any doubts, it is best to ask your instructor, and keep in mind that each course may have different standards of what might be acceptable.
If you are permitted to use an AI tool in your work and you have made the decision to use one, it may be a good idea to acknowledge your use as follows:
At this time, citing Generative AI is an evolving conversation, and some style guides have released official guidance on how to cite AI-generated text or images, while others have not. In addition, style guides have differing guidelines of whether tools (or companies) are “authors.”
Here are some examples of differences of how Gen-AI information might be cited in different style guides:
The APA released new guidelines for citing Generative AI in September, 2025. The guidance is detailed in three parts:
Example given from "Part 1 - Reference formats":
“Our prompt was ‘I’d like a list of grammar topics that a student should understand by the time they graduate from high school.’ In this scenario, we want to include those chats as references in a paper.”
References
Anthropic. (2025, May 20). Essential grammar topics for high school graduates [Generative AI chat]. Claude Sonnet 4. https://claude.ai/share/329173b2-ec93-4663-ac68-4f65ea4f166d
Google. (2025, May 22). High school grammar concepts overview [Generative AI chat]. Gemini 2.5 Flash. https://g.co/gemini/share/a1306ce12929
OpenAI. (2025, August 21). High school grammar concepts [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT. https://chatgpt.com/share/68a77b60-0ee4-800c-9acc-cd3fd573c311
Perplexity AI. (2025, May 20). High school grammar topics [Generative AI chat]. Perplexity. https://www.perplexity.ai/search/a457cb8c-c663-4c9b-b34e-cb03d8108b35
The Chicago Style FAQ suggests that “conversations” with Gen-AI chatbots can be treated in a similar fashion to private emails or phone conversations that couldn’t be accessed by others. It recommends including information about how the AI tool was prompted, and suggests “you must credit ChatGPT when you reproduce its words within your own work, but unless you include a publicly available URL, that information should be put in the text or in a note–not in a bibliography or reference list.”
For example, if a prompt was not given in-text:
1. ChatGPT, response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients,” OpenAI, March 7, 2023.
The IEEE Editorial Style Manual for Authors (2023) does not offer any official guidance on citing AI-generated content. Some suggest treating AI-generated text similarly to private communication.
MLA revised specific guidance on citing Generative AI in 2025. Fundamentally, MLA uses a template of core citation elements that are flexible enough to accommodate citing AI-generated text or images. While MLA recommends that you do not treat an AI tool as an author, it suggests you should:
An example of a works cited entry for a paraphrase of text output by ChatGPT might look like this:
“Describe the theme of nature in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park” prompt. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1b0a0-d704-8000-be9a-85f53c850607
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