design school question that nobody seems to have a clear answer to: how do you properly cite AI-generated assets in academic projects?
my situation: im teaching a brand identity course and students are increasingly using midjourney for mood boards, chatgpt for copy exploration, and firefly for texture generation in their projects. im not banning it - i think learning to work with AI is important. but i need clear citation guidelines
what ive put together so far:
for how to cite chatgpt in academic design work:
- APA 7th edition added AI citation guidelines: Author = OpenAI, date of generation, title = descriptive, URL to chatgpt.com
- but this feels clunky for design projects. do i really need a bibliography entry for every mood board prompt?
for midjourney/firefly:
- no standardized citation format exists yet
- some schools require listing the tool + prompt + date in a footnote
- others just want a disclosure statement: “AI tools used: [list]”
the bigger philosophical questions:
- how do i cite chatgpt when its output was used as a starting point for original work? like if a student asked chatgpt for brand name ideas, then picked one and built an entire identity around it - what gets cited?
- is using chat gpt considered plagiarism? my university says “undisclosed AI use” is academic dishonesty but disclosed use is fine. that makes citation the critical factor
- one student asked me: is it plagiarism if i use my own AI-generated content from a previous project? basically - is it possible to plagiarize yourself when AI is involved?
how are other design educators handling this? is there a standard emerging or are we all just winging it?