Chapter 15Before you share
Say how AI helped
Say how AI helped wherever your reader would want to know. The style guides and publishers now say how.
The major style guides each publish advice. Chicago says to credit AI-generated text you use, usually by naming the tool in your text, and suggests a note in formal work such as a research paper.1 APA says that if you used AI in writing a paper, you will usually need to disclose it and cite the chat or the tool.2 MLA says not to treat the AI tool as an author.3
Groups that set rules for scholarly publishing agree: AI tools can’t be authors, because they “cannot take responsibility for the submitted work,” and authors should say how they used them.45
How this book did it. Its AI disclosure is in Appendix E, linked from the foot of every page: researched and drafted with help from AI, then checked claim by claim against the cited sources.
Check in
Try answering in your own words, then open each one to compare.
What should you do before you share AI-assisted work?
Check it, cut it to what your reader needs, keep private data out, and say how AI helped where your reader would want to know.
Can an AI tool be listed as an author?
Publishing-ethics groups say no, because it can’t take responsibility for the work. Its use is disclosed instead.
Some work shouldn’t be handed to AI at all, however carefully you check it. Next: knowing when not to. (If you build things with these tools, Appendix F is for you.) On to Chapter 16: Knowing when not to →
Notes (5)
- 1Chicago Manual of Style editors, “How do you recommend citing content developed or generated by artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT?” Chicago Manual of Style Online, Chicago Style Q&A (Citation, Documentation of Sources), n.d., https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0422.html (accessed October 27, 2026).
- 2Timothy McAdoo, Samantha Denneny, and Chelsea Lee, “Citing generative AI in APA Style: Part 1—Reference formats,” APA Style Blog, September 9, 2025, https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/cite-generative-ai-references (accessed October 27, 2026).
- 3MLA Style Center, “How do I cite generative AI in MLA style? (Updated and Revised),” MLA Style Center, Ask the MLA, August 13, 2025, https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai-updated-revised/ (accessed October 27, 2026).
- 4Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), “Authorship and AI tools: COPE position statement,” COPE website, last reviewed February 13, 2023, https://publicationethics.org/guidance/cope-position/authorship-and-ai-tools (accessed October 27, 2026).
- 5International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE, January 2026), https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf (accessed October 27, 2026). Cited at §II.A.4.
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