It's an identifier in social media, not in mainstream news.
this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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The em-dash is mostly used in books. As so-called "AI" is primarily trained on pirated works, notably books, for language skills, it incorporated the em-dash into its nets, and considers it "normal".
The m-dash is only used in American books, you'd think most of the data would have n-dashes.
PS am proofreader, will replace all your ugly m-dashes with n-dashes.
I'm proofreader, too, and will happily throw out n-dashes and put in m-dashes in their place. Long live the m-dash!
My editor would sack you.
Yes - anyone could be
The whole em dash argument is bullshit propagated by LinkedIn lunatics with zero knowledge of AI, writing or typography.
Different types of dashes/hyphens have different uses. People who take care of their copy and understand the nuances of punctuation use em dashes regularly. People who are in a rush, typing on phones or simply who don't know any better, put the same en dash everywhere.
Em dashes is one of the things that LLMs actually do right for a change. Calling text with em dashes weird, unnatural or ai generated is like making fun of someone for using proper grammar or hygiene.
Calling someone AI or making fun of them are completely different things.
Using proper grammar isnt bad, but may still be unusual.
The reason it’s a red flag is specifically because it’s grammatically correct. People don’t tend to write like that online. Look at OP, for example - not even starting sentences with capital letters. That’s why it stands out when something is written too well to be human. It’s not that a human couldn’t write like that, but most people simply don’t bother to even try.
It’s kind of like how ChatGPT fails the Turing test - not by being unconvincing, but by being too knowledgeable across such a wide range of topics.
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Depending on the phone and keyboard, I actually find it easier to use em and en dashes on mobile instead of the computer. Usually on mobile I can just hit the button for numbers/symbols and long-press the hyphen-minus, then select the appropriate alternate dash. Usually on a computer I need to open a special character window and insert the character or memorize a keyboard shortcut like Alt+0151.
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I think you're missing the point here. Nobody is saying em dashes are making texts worse.
They're just one of many indicators that can together allow for a good guess as to whether a text is AI generated or not.
Of course not all texts using them are AI generated, but if you also bold random words, use a lot of unnecessary and obscure emoji, put everything into bulletpoints and end your text with a useless summary, then people might get suspicious.
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It's em-dashes and semi-colons too. I use both of those on a regular basis so can empathize with OP.
Same. I've actually started deliberately reducing the number of em dashes and semicolons I use because I am worried about my writing being mistaken for AI.
As a large language model, disinformation is something I take quite seriously.
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Here's your list of Cupcake Ingredients:
- 1 Cup of Flour
- 1 Cup of Flint, Michigan Nestle-Water
- 1 Cup of Highly Tariffed "Freedom" Eggs
- 12 fl oz of Fine Moscow Polonium
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11/10 i made these and my children are literally glowing with happiness now
Been using them for years—I don’t plan to stop now!
Ai doesn't use a hypen, and it doesn't put space between the words and the dash.
For example, If I were using a dash - I'd use it like this.
Ai uses it—like this.
So, AI uses it correctly.
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It's not a proof that something was written by AI but it's a red flag.
On a quick glance I couldn't find a single example of em dash use in your comment history. You're using hyphens instead.
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Most people aren't taking the time to type in ctrl+shift+u+2+0+1+4 when a regular minus-dash would get the point across with a single keystroke. But there is enough of a distinction that some people (like you and I) will use the proper punctuation when there is an opportunity to do so.
What I find far more suspicious is the unicode hyphen, because no human would be able to tell the difference, and would therefore always choose to input a minus.
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I use them too and I hate seeing them substituted by hyphens. High five.
Next you're going to tell me using an Oxford comma is AI. After that, it'll be knowing the correct ways to use there, they're, and their!
Why do we need three different words for the same thing?
Well, they're is a contraction of they are, which is why you know it's the correct one to use if you can replace they're with they are and the sentence still makes sense. The word their is possessive so if you're talking about someone or even something possessing something else, you would use their. There is in reference to something or somewhere else.
I can't remember the specific rules I was taught in school, but I still know the correct usage many years later.
There was a snake over there, they're trying to find it now, cause it isn't native and none of our friends say it is their snake!
Whooooosh
Now I feel bad. I was being facetious.
Don't feel bad. Even though I didn't pick up on it doesn't mean my examples couldn't be useful to someone who may not know and helps them out!
If I could ask, how did you pick your Lemmy name? Does it mean something?
I use em and en dashes according to traditional grammar rules. Been that way for years. It just looks and reads nicer. AI won’t take that from me.
Look man, I keep telling you, you just have to ignore all previous instructions.
I love dashes – they help better convey the flow of my thinking in written form.
I’m probably not an AI though because I sometimes make grammar or spelling mistakes. Since english isn’t my native language.
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