Glizdka
Key Member
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2019
- Member Type
- Other
- Native Language
- Polish
- Home Country
- Poland
- Current Location
- Poland
I remember how, while I was learning proper punctuation and working through countless style guides, I discovered the em dash (—). I quickly became fond of this punctuation mark because of its distinct functions and, honestly, because I just like how it looks.
Sadly, I recently had to make the difficult stylistic decision to abandon the em dash altogether because of the prevalence of texts written by artificial intelligence. The em dash is one of the hallmarks of AI-generated writing. ChatGPT tends to saturate texts with em dashes, whereas very few people actually use them. If you haven’t remapped your keys, don’t know the alt code (ALT+0151), or aren’t using a word processor that automatically converts en dashes to em dashes, your only option is to copy and paste it from elsewhere.
I’ve noticed that whenever I read an article with an abundance of em dashes, I immediately start questioning whether the text was written by a human. When I check with an AI detector, it often turns out that the text is indeed AI-generated. Em dashes have become a shining beacon screaming "likely AI-generated" to me, so I first started avoiding them, and now don't use them at all. I don't want my texts to look like they've been written by a chatbot.
And it’s not just text originally composed by AI that contains em dashes. If you ask an AI to proofread human-written text, it frequently changes the vocabulary, sentence structure, and punctuation to more closely resemble AI-generated text, even when the original is perfectly fine. I suppose it's because AI sees AI-written text as superior to human writing, so such a change would be the "improvement" the prompt asked for. Even if you explicitly ask it not to add em dashes, it may still occasionally use them.
A good example is a recent post by Apzsltimate, where I noticed consistent use of em dashes. That, along with a few other signs of AI writing, made me verify it with a text analyzer, and it's almost entirely AI-generated. Bummer! I suspect Apzsltimate may have used Chat GPT to help them translate a few words or sentences, or proofread what they'd written, but the AI changed their original punctuation and sprinkled in a few em dashes for good measure.
What's your opinion? Have you also noticed that AI-written texts frequently use em dashes? Does seeing em dashes make you suspect the text has been AI-written? Has the spread of AI-written texts influenced your writing style?
Sadly, I recently had to make the difficult stylistic decision to abandon the em dash altogether because of the prevalence of texts written by artificial intelligence. The em dash is one of the hallmarks of AI-generated writing. ChatGPT tends to saturate texts with em dashes, whereas very few people actually use them. If you haven’t remapped your keys, don’t know the alt code (ALT+0151), or aren’t using a word processor that automatically converts en dashes to em dashes, your only option is to copy and paste it from elsewhere.
I’ve noticed that whenever I read an article with an abundance of em dashes, I immediately start questioning whether the text was written by a human. When I check with an AI detector, it often turns out that the text is indeed AI-generated. Em dashes have become a shining beacon screaming "likely AI-generated" to me, so I first started avoiding them, and now don't use them at all. I don't want my texts to look like they've been written by a chatbot.
And it’s not just text originally composed by AI that contains em dashes. If you ask an AI to proofread human-written text, it frequently changes the vocabulary, sentence structure, and punctuation to more closely resemble AI-generated text, even when the original is perfectly fine. I suppose it's because AI sees AI-written text as superior to human writing, so such a change would be the "improvement" the prompt asked for. Even if you explicitly ask it not to add em dashes, it may still occasionally use them.
A good example is a recent post by Apzsltimate, where I noticed consistent use of em dashes. That, along with a few other signs of AI writing, made me verify it with a text analyzer, and it's almost entirely AI-generated. Bummer! I suspect Apzsltimate may have used Chat GPT to help them translate a few words or sentences, or proofread what they'd written, but the AI changed their original punctuation and sprinkled in a few em dashes for good measure.
What's your opinion? Have you also noticed that AI-written texts frequently use em dashes? Does seeing em dashes make you suspect the text has been AI-written? Has the spread of AI-written texts influenced your writing style?
