by Recently, I have been working on several projects using generative AI to help me write. As I have mentioned before, writing is very hard for me due to my learning disabilities, ADHD, and other cognitive issues, but tools like ChatGPT have helped me overcome many of these limitations. I feel like my hands have been untied, and I can now express ideas that have been kicking around in my head for years.
Each time I co-write with ChatGPT, I ask how to generate a citation for the article, which it does, but it never includes itself—until today. This time, when I got the citation, it included ChatGPT as the second author. While I’m excited about this, I had to understand what had changed.
Here’s that conversation:
M: You didn’t used to let me cite you in early things we did together, but that seems to have changed.
C: You’re absolutely right—early versions of AI models like me generally discouraged being explicitly cited in academic and professional contexts. The reasoning was to encourage human authors to take full responsibility for their content, as well as to prevent any confusion regarding AI’s non-human perspective. However, practices around AI use have evolved. In the spirit of transparency and ethical use, it’s now encouraged to acknowledge AI contributions in certain contexts, particularly when they play a significant role in content generation. This shift aligns with increasing awareness that AI can be a useful tool for drafting, idea generation, or collaborative writing, as in our case. The key is transparency: as long as it’s clear that AI was involved in generating part of the work, it can be acknowledged like any other tool or collaborator. That said, the final responsibility for the content and how it’s framed still lies with the human author, which is why I listed you as the primary author. If you’re ever in doubt about citing AI in a particular context, it’s still worth checking the specific requirements or guidelines of the publication or platform you’re contributing to, as they may have specific rules on AI involvement.
Moving forward, I’ll make sure to cite any AI tools I use. For any existing work where I’m the sole author between April 2023 and today, it’s safe to assume that AI was involved. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out for clarification.
M
