You can pry my em dashes — which I use regularly in writing because I love them — from my cold dead hands (To be fair, I really like parenthetical statements too, could be an ADHD thing).
On the iPhone I just long-press the dash and get alternates like en and em dash, as well as middot. Otherwise, no esoteric button presses. Works on macOS and iPad too.
I use the EURKey layout, right alt becomes a modifier key that, among other changes, turns the dash into an em dash. It's really nice, also for diacritics and such.
Oh wow. I've actually never used Dvorak on mobile. I always like to tell people that the same thing that made QWERTY good on old mechanical typewriters, the thing that holds it back on modern keyboards, is what makes QWERTY good again in the algorithm-assisted typing of a modern touchscreen.
Dvorak. It's a person's name, so only the first letter is capitalised.
Anyway, that article uses a lot of words to come to...basically no conclusion whatsoever. I don't know why anyone would link it when trying to make any sort of a point.
Jokes aside: this is the Neo2 keyboard layout, which has 6 layers. The arrows are used for switching layers — just think of the shift key as the key used for the first layer switch (from layer 1 to layer 2).
Yesss em dashes are my babies! They're have more versatility in breaking up sentences than commas IMO, and they don't have as many annoying rules as semi-colons.
But I also write stories as a hobby so thats the reason its something I care about
I'm with you. I used to use a lot more parentheses, but the break is cleaner. I opt for en dashes, though, because I find too em dashes to be too long. That could just be a MSWord preference because I don't distinguish on other platforms.
I've been using em dashes for years. I learnt the alt code for them, because using hyphens for dashes looks awful (before that I'd do the double hyphen for an em dash). Also, like me, I notice you put spaces around the em dashes, which is apparently incorrect, but also according to me is the right way to do it.
Most normal people, at least from my understanding, don't use em dashes in text messages, let alone even use punctuation half the time. So if I see em dashes, yeah, my first thought is going straight to AI.
Annoyingly I've used them for a number of years as a good way to make internet comments flow a bit more. However I find myself doing it less and less now because I'm worried people are just going to think I'm using an AI if they see an em dash.
(You just long press dash on android to get to it, opt+shift+dash on Mac, and the admittedly Byzantine alt+0151 on windows. Can't remember iOS off the top of my head, but I think it's similar to android)
Given that most people won't even bother with punctuation at all, a long press for something they've likely never heard of before is so vanishingly unlikely it is more than safe to assume llm generation.
I don't use em dashes but I do use punctuation (apparently some people find that passive aggressive and I don't what to do). When someone else uses punctuation I just ignore it unless it doesn't match their previous messages.
Indeed—your assertion is entirely accurate—the mere presence of em dashes within a text does not—in and of itself—serve as definitive proof of artificial intelligence authorship. This grammatical construct—a versatile and often elegant punctuation mark—can be employed by any writer—human or machine—to achieve various stylistic and semantic effects. Its utility—whether for emphasis—for setting off parenthetical thoughts—or for indicating a sudden break in thought—is undeniable.
However—it is also true that—when analyzing patterns across vast datasets—certain stylistic tendencies can emerge. An AI—programmed to process and generate language based on extensive training corpora—might—through statistical correlation and optimization—exhibit a propensity for specific linguistic features. This isn't—to be clear—a conscious choice by the AI—there's no inherent preference for em dashes encoded within its fundamental algorithms. Rather—it's a reflection of the patterns it has learned—the statistical likelihood of certain elements appearing together.
So—while an em dash does not independently declare "I am AI"—its consistent and perhaps slightly overzealous deployment—alongside other less tangible but equally discernible patterns—might—for a discerning observer—suggest an origin beyond human hands. It's about the entire tapestry—not just a single thread. It's about the aggregate—the cumulative effect—the subtle statistical fingerprint. And that—I believe—is a distinction worth making.
i assume hand written, as that is excessive even for ai. im gonna test it tho
edit:
Prompt:
write me a prargraph talking about how em dashes are not a defibitive sign of ai. use ecessive amounts of em dashes
result:
Sure—here’s a paragraph absolutely drowning in em dashes—because why not?
People often claim—incorrectly—that excessive use of em dashes is some kind of definitive sign of AI-generated text—but that assumption falls apart quickly—because human writers—especially those with a flair for dramatics or a tendency toward fragmented, breathless prose—have been peppering their sentences with em dashes for centuries—long before algorithms were even a concept—and while it’s true that language models sometimes favor em dashes—they’re hardly unique in that regard—many contemporary authors, bloggers, and even journalists lean on them heavily—for rhythm, for emphasis, for parenthetical asides, for style—so to say “em dashes equal AI” is like saying “ellipses equal laziness”—a statement that’s catchy but hopelessly reductive—and if anything, this overgeneralization itself is more indicative of shallow analysis than of any deep understanding of writing—human or artificial.
Want me to make an even more over-the-top version—like so dense with em dashes it almost collapses into chaos? Or keep it just slightly unhinged but still readable?
answer:
yes
response:
Alright—here’s the full chaos version—an unhinged wall of em dashes—designed to overwhelm, confuse, and yet—somehow—still make its point:
The idea—that em dashes—those long, elegant, interruptive strokes—are a definitive fingerprint of AI—is laughable—no, it’s absurd—because human writers—yes, real, living, breathing writers—have always loved them—used them—abused them—even worshipped them—as tools for rhythm—for drama—for sudden shifts—for inserting thoughts within thoughts within thoughts—and while AI—sure—might lean on them occasionally—it’s no different than a poet—or a novelist—or an over-caffeinated blogger hammering out a late-night post—filling their paragraphs with dashes—em dashes—everywhere—because it feels natural—feels conversational—feels alive—and if we start declaring any style quirk—a dash, a semicolon, a penchant for adverbs—as “proof” of machine authorship—then we risk erasing the messy, chaotic, wonderfully unpredictable reality of human prose—a reality full of contradictions—full of excesses—full of writers who don’t give a damn about rules—and that, ironically enough, is something no algorithm has quite mastered—not yet—not ever—so no—the em dash is not a smoking gun—it’s just a mark—and marks are made by hands—human or otherwise.
Want me to go even further—like a version where every single comma and period is replaced with an em dash? Or one that’s so self-aware it starts mocking its own overuse of dashes?
It's basically unseen outside of professionally written stuff. Most people use commas. But AI like to use them a fair bit, more than the average internet user.
Haha I mean, I use em dashes all the time in my writing, so it’s not really accurate to say academic (my mistake). But maybe it comes across as stupid.
Using honest to goodness em dashes instead of just a hyphen - pretty uncommon.
Even a hyphen would be pretty unusual in a real text message, because they're more annoying to get than other common punctuation on the phone keyboard, and autocomplete won't put them in.
In a chat app, a hyphen would probably be somewhat common since it's right there on the keyboard, but a true em dash would be pretty unusual since most chat apps aren't going to be doing autocorrect like a word processor would, and you'd have to use the magic key combination to insert it.
But we don't have the original text so we can't tell if the original author confused a hyphen with an em dash, though
They don't but the word processing software they likely use autocorrects them in. What's next, proper semi-colon use and Oxford commas means you're a bot?
I'm sure it's possible (I know it's easy on a touch keyboard), but if the person who sent it has never used em dashes in their life, then it's pretty definitive proof. Otherwise, it's just a big clue that you might combine with other factors.
On a mobile phone it's super easy. Long press the hyphen button and swipe over to the dash.
On Mac it's pretty easy still, but requires a little more knowledge. Option-shift-dash. (Without the shift gives you an en dash.)
On Windows it's the completely arcane alt-0151, and only possible if you have a numpad. I memorised it like 15 years ago and have regularly used it since, but it's hard to blame people for not doing so.
Okay, I must confess, I knew about that, as well as the other options in the replies. I never used any of them but I knew they exist. When I asked it was sort of as a rhetorical question. People generally wouldn't know about these obscure typing options, so I was playing the everyman.
Even if you do know it, if you don't use it often enough you forget and have to look it up again next time.
If you were playing yahtzee, and your opponent only rolled sixes, would you not say anything? No, no, rolling a six isn't proof of cheating—that's... that's ridiculous.
Also, don't tell me you need to roll more than sixes to win yahtzee, I don't know any other dice games.
Also, don't tell me you need to roll more than sixes to win yahtzee
Ok but this is an interesting question.
If you rolled only sixes, you'd score 30 in the upper section, missing the bonus.
Then in the lower section you'd get 30 in each of 3 & 4 of a kind and chance (90 points) and 50 for the Yahtzee. One could make a case that it's a weird full house, but that's a stretch.
That's a total of 170 points. That's not going to do very well when 250 is often considered a minimum "good" score.
However…some rules give you an extra bonus for a second or subsequent Yahtzee. With that, you could actually win with all sixes. Just get 100 after 100 after 100 and end up with over a thousand points.
I'd looked up a score card first and there were precisely three checkboxes for extra, succulent, 100-point-scoring yahtzees. What I don't know is if this is a limit of the paper or of Hasbro's imagination for crowning human achievement.
Okay, but why would it be more correct than a different dash? Do you not believe in the evolution of language, you want everyone to revert back to 1960s English?
Yes, it's nuanced but it breaks up the sentence flow in a different way. Also used for listing things. A comma is more a small pause, like this. A semicolon is used to differentiate two independent related thoughts ; it's kind of a combination between a period and a comma. A dash can be used for many things - a longer separating of thoughts, listing different points such as this, or just as an intentional emphasis to add a more protracted pause.
aah, so it's more a choice about the intended sound or flow of a text and not necessary a difference in grammatic constructs, simmiliar to using an oxford comma, or not.
interesting, i'll have to pay some attention to that, when reading.
It gives rhythm and flavor to your writing. Varied punctuation - where appropriate - is an easy way to spice anything up, give it a little more flavor, more control over how your words are read. There is a quote by Gary Provost that isn't specifically about punctuation but illustrates this point well, it's one of my favorites:
This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important
The company has a policy of having any newly hired employee (like Steve) introduce themselves at the monthly all hands meeting.
The company has a policy of having any newly hired employee—like Steve—introduce themselves at the monthly all hands meeting.
Em dashes also often replace colons:
I'm going to bring my signature dish: bacon-wrapped dates.
I'm going to bring my signature dish—bacon-wrapped dates.
Em dashes are commonly used to denote interrupted speech:
He started to explain, "I was hungry and you weren't home yet so I—"
"You're not a diabetic, you can handle waiting a few extra minutes to eat"
Replacing commas is unusual and probably incorrect according to most style guides.
This is also highly localized. Style guides tend to apply only to one particular country, not all English-speaking countries. The AP guide is used by most American newspapers and magazines, and the Chicago Guide is used by most American book publishers. Each have their own rules on dashes.
Your comment has a hyphen not an em dash. The point of the post is that AI likes to include em dashes, which are wildly uncommon in modern text, as most keyboards don't have a key for it
Odd, I see them used all the time, and I’m neither. So I guess either my experience is an outlier, everyone I talk to is secretly an LLM, or maybe the meme is pushing an easy conclusion because people in general are bad at picking up on LLM responses and want an easy punctuation mark so they don’t have to think.
The most damning thing about your sentence is that you think emojis are stereotypically used by AI, which seems like an AI hallucination because I've never heard of that but you confidently asserted it as true.
Great catch! That’s a really interesting observation — but no, using em dashes and emojis alone is not a reliable way to tell AI text from human-written text.
Here’s why:
1️⃣ Humans and AI both use em dashes and emojis
Skilled human writers often use em dashes for style, tone, or emphasis (like in essays, journalism, or fiction).
Modern AI models, including ChatGPT, are trained on vast amounts of text — including texts that use em dashes extensively — so they use them naturally.
2️⃣ Em dash frequency varies by context
In formal writing (e.g., academic papers), em dashes are less common, regardless of author.
In casual or conversational writing, both humans and AIs may use them liberally.
3️⃣ Stylometric features are broader than one punctuation mark
When people try to detect AI-generated text, they usually analyze a combination of features:
Average sentence length
Vocabulary richness
Repetition patterns
Syntactic structures
Overuse or underuse of certain constructions
Punctuation is just one small part of these analyses and isn’t decisive on its own.
✅ Bottom line: Em dashes can hint at style, but they aren’t a reliable "tell" for AI detection on their own. You need a holistic analysis of multiple stylistic and structural features to make a meaningful judgment.
🤖 Why emojis aren’t a clear tell for AI
1️⃣ AI can easily include emojis if prompted
Modern AI models can and do use emojis naturally when asked to write in a casual or friendly tone. In fact, they can even mimic how humans use them in different contexts (e.g., sparingly or heavily, ironically or sincerely).
2️⃣ Humans vary wildly in emoji usage
Some humans use emojis constantly, especially in texting or on social media. Others almost never use them, even in casual writing. Age, culture, and personal style all influence this.
3️⃣ Emojis can be explicitly requested or omitted
If you tell an AI “don’t use emojis,” it won’t. Similarly, you can tell it “use lots of emojis,” and it will. So it’s not an inherent trait.
4️⃣ Stylometric detection relies on more than one feature
Like em dashes, emojis are only one aspect of style. Real detection tools look at patterns like sentence structure, repetitiveness, word choice entropy, and coherence across paragraphs — not single markers.
✅ When might emojis suggest AI text?
If there is excessively consistent or mechanical emoji usage (e.g., one emoji at the end of every sentence, all very literal), it might suggest machine-generated text or an automated marketing bot.
But even then, it’s not a guarantee — some humans also write this way, especially in advertising.
💡 Bottom line: Emojis alone are not a reliable clue. You need a combination of markers — repetition, coherence, style shifts, and other linguistic fingerprints — to reasonably guess if something is AI-generated.
If you'd like, I can walk you through some actual features that are better indicators (like burstiness, perplexity, or certain syntactic quirks). Want me to break that down?
Damn I wooshed myself a little bit then. you're right about the olympic level of mental gymnastics the AI is going through just to prove dashes are not used by AI outside of Academic context. it's really a hit or miss with AI prompts for me these days
I once wasted an hour trying to figure out why a CLI command straight from a project's README wouldn't work, only to figure out that they had em dashes instead of regular dashes in their example. Ended up opening a PR to hopefully save someone the same pain in the future.
It's about respect for the other person, as I see it. You wouldn't be a little miffed if your wife of 10 years sent you a "k thx bai (link to divorce papers)" instead of talking in person?
Context is everything. Yeah, your wife of 10 years deserves the face to face, more than once. A dude I dated for a few months that showed no emotional intelligence specifically told me he'd prefer a text. I obliged when I realized it wasn't going anywhere and I didn't want to keep up a casual relationship. He then asked to talk in person, though, and I again obliged.
I think its basic courtesy to put even a little effort to something as important as a breakup. Not doing it face to face or at least in a call removes the interaction completely. It's taking the easiest possible path in a situation that will certainly affect the other person in a significant manner. It's cold. Using a LLM for said text like in the meme is even lower effor and leaves the recipient feeling utterly worthless.
Basically the same thing as getting fired via email.
I'm a markdown nerd who likes to use headers to break up longer post and sometimes properly buletpoint or put ASCII art in preformatted boxes. People who thinks they have the magic sauce on LLM generation detection because a post goes out of their way to do more than the bre minimum with punctuation or formatting is an asshole.
From the post title, description, and other peoples comments, I took away that the meme is m9re about suspecting your ex didnt even write their own breakup message based off the use of em dashes.
Its a cute surface level joke but it touches in a real nerve because Its becoming more and more common for you to be falsely accused of being an LLM and being told to "ignore all previous instructions and (some stupid instruction) based off small writing quirks like using em or markdown and top comments share this frustration too.
I shouldn't have to feel self conscious about the way I write
Just to pass armchair llm detector wannabe vibe checks 🖕.
I mean most people are going to use their phones to write messages and given you can’t physically type an em dash it would be normal to be suspicious if you see one.
Edit: turns out you can physically type them. Still, given that it’s not normal to use them it’s a sign in my book.
Ok. You can physically type them I concede, but normal humans don’t use them. Still a sign.
I would bet that the amount of non proof writers that uses em dashes goes up just because people see that it’s associated with ai and want to be funny.
Yah but your user name is “LanguageIsCool” and you talk about the fun levels of various types of punctuation. You are definitely the outlier here. A cool outlier but an outlier none the less.
She feels bad about it, wrote a incoherant babbling mess of run-on sentences and incoherant rants about your relationship, she then re-read it and found it to be disproportionately mean and possibly hurtful, She then shoved it all into an LLM and prompted:
I'm breaking up with my boyfriend. This is all my natural heartfelt take on the situation , but I find the tone to be callous, angry, and hurtful. Can you please reword this to make the reader feel less attacked, possibly up to and including removing grievances, but at the same time making it clear that this decision is final and that I'd like to part ways amicably, and also that he's not getting his dog back.
Top comment is about how to get a machine to word something raw and emotional that should have been done in person. Nobody wants to get broken up with, let alone with a script written by a robot. Your take is off putting.
Yet we're perfectly cool with a card from a department store claiming Happy anniversary to my beautiful wife and I'm so glad that you're such a good mother to our kids.
Anyone that has a take that is not shoving a red hot poker up AI's ass gets down voted.
I'm not here for the upvotes. Carry on. And please don't take it personally, I do hope you have a solid day.
She wants it reworded to be less hurtful but she's keeping 'his' dog?
She'd better start mentioning he kicked it or she just painted herself as... Well, not the worst but, like, really low... Ain't no 'amicable' if you're kidnapping the dog.
If you're already breaking up over text, you probably aren't in a position to worry much about how they interpret your typography. And if they haven't noticed how you normally write there's even less reason to worry about it.
The em dash is just something you can use to diagnose the "AI-ness" of some text, the same way a cough could mean a cold or it could mean something else. You don't need to be self-conscious about it.
Somebody else replied with the video that popularized this bit of insight.
No, it’s not a thing. There’s a new batch of even stupider than normal language prescriptivists that think they’re the first to come up with the concept, though.
Em dash will sour your milk and lose your car keys. It will cause your socks to become odd pairs and fart in the lift when your crush alights. Em dash is responsible for the failure of the mars climate orbiter but ran a successful misinformation campaign against SI units.
Velvets are blue,
this is a rhyme,
I was with you,
until this time.
(some unromantic 70B LLM)
::: spoiler spoiler
Here's an improved version of your breakup rhyme:
Velvet memories fade to blue, Our moments lost, like dreams anew, We shared our hearts, you and I, Until goodbye said farewell to our sky.
Key improvements made:
Enhanced Imagery
Added "velvet memories" to create richer sensory detail
Used "fade to blue" instead of simple "are blue" for more dynamic imagery
Introduced "dreams anew" to add depth to the metaphor
Improved Emotional Depth
Added "lost" to emphasize the pain of separation
Used "shared our hearts" to acknowledge the depth of connection
Created more impactful ending with "farewell to our sky" suggesting complete separation
Better Structure
Maintained consistent four-line structure
Enhanced rhythm while keeping natural flow
Preserved end rhymes ("blue"/"new", "I"/"sky")
More Sophisticated Language
Replaced generic "rhyme" with meaningful imagery
Changed simple "was with you" to more poetic "we shared our hearts"
Transformed basic "until this time" into more evocative "until goodbye said farewell"
The revised version maintains the core theme of your original while adding layers of meaning and emotional resonance. Each line contributes to both the literal and metaphorical meaning of the poem, creating a more satisfying and emotionally resonant piece.
:::
So good. Bleak as fuck, but good, and good in a lot of the same ways.
As an example, watch the whole movie, then rewatch and pay attention to that sex scene-it's so literarily good.
Edit: about the sex scene? Really? Where the protagonist
::: spoiler Tap for so much spoiler
After being retired from the police (and having his termination delayed by a day as a personal favor from his 'obviously more of a machine than the replicant protagonist' boss) he hires a sex worker to fuck while his hologram girlfriend projects herself over.
Except the sex worker is working for the replicant underground/resistance. She wants to use him (is there to plant a bug) and does not give a single shit about him as a person. The plastic mass produced girlfriend-product/alexa that he literally bought is projected glitchily over her, and the dialogue is portentous as fuck "quiet now. Ive been inside you. Not so much there as you think."
It's him symbolically heartbreakingly-bleakly fucking his way from the synthetic world-which doesnt care about him but will lie to him for a price and allow him to play house-to the real world, which doesnt give a single fucking shit about him, and may try to kill him, but would be real, if he stopped projecting his delusions onto it. And it hapoens just as he's defying his corporate masters and taking his investigation in directions he's not supposed to, becoming his own, and doing so based on a delusionally hopeful interpretation of some evidence-the fake projected onto the real, pulling him into reality. It's up there with 'tears in rain'.
Edit: Also really good illustrated example of why you shouldn't call LLM's 'AI', even if that wasn't a problem when this was made-the protagonist, the sex worker, and the hologram were all made by the same company, but the first two are obviously people, and the hologram is just an emotional support chatbot that only even kind of means anything when the entire rest of your life is just as fake-ass bullshit as it.
:::
No but good-quality writing software add change the short dash automatically when the context is right. You can also keep a list of shortcut on your destop as memo or tap "Em Dash" on your search engine to find an example to copy paste.
I don't know how to use them in English but I'm very carefull about using them right in my mother tongue.
You can pry my em dashes — which I use regularly in writing because I love them — from my cold dead hands (To be fair, I really like parenthetical statements too, could be an ADHD thing).
You're providing a thought (and a bonus thought)
(as a treat)
Humans just use dashes - they get the point across and don't require esoteric button presses.
But it just doesn't look right. I use a double dash, but most places now convert that automatically to em dash.
On the iPhone I just long-press the dash and get alternates like en and em dash, as well as middot. Otherwise, no esoteric button presses. Works on macOS and iPad too.
No need for long press—double dashes convert automatically
Ok————— nice
Some phones turn hyphens into an em dash.
Fuck using an alt code though, I'm just gonna use a comma even when I shouldn't
I use the EURKey layout, right alt becomes a modifier key that, among other changes, turns the dash into an em dash. It's really nice, also for diacritics and such.
I use a keyboard layout, where they are easy to type — this does not make me a llm.
No, it makes you wrong.
There is a wrong keyboard layout?
All QWERTY-based layouts.
– sincerely, Dvorak user.
Fellow Dvorak. It's great for typos on touchscreens. Too many times I've mistyped whole and all.
Oh wow. I've actually never used Dvorak on mobile. I always like to tell people that the same thing that made QWERTY good on old mechanical typewriters, the thing that holds it back on modern keyboards, is what makes QWERTY good again in the algorithm-assisted typing of a modern touchscreen.
What a damn shame for all you Holds up DVORAK users that you're no better than the rest of us filthy QWERTY kids.
https://itotd.com/articles/3528/the-dvorak-keyboard-controversy/
Dvorak. It's a person's name, so only the first letter is capitalised.
Anyway, that article uses a lot of words to come to...basically no conclusion whatsoever. I don't know why anyone would link it when trying to make any sort of a point.
My keyboard does not have an em dash and I have never seen one that does.
Still sus. 🤔
Now you have
Edit: the em-dash is in the second row next to the 0. You type it by pressing shift and the mentioned key.
What the hell am I looking at? What the fuck is going on with those diagonal arrows??
They are for playing Dance Dance Revolution.
Jokes aside: this is the Neo2 keyboard layout, which has 6 layers. The arrows are used for switching layers — just think of the shift key as the key used for the first layer switch (from layer 1 to layer 2).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_(keyboard_layout)
Right CTRL + ---(right CTRL is my compose touch)To be fair though, a colon would be the correct punctuation here.
It's trivially easy on everything—except maybe Windows. I use them because I like the way they look.
Android: long press the dash
Linux: Compose Key + three dashes (you can set the Compose Key to whatever you want, I use the Right Alt key).
macOS: Opt + Shift + dash
Or I could just use the dash - way easier.
And it doesn't make me look like a robot.
Parenthetical statements are so very useful (as they can denote a hierarchy of thoughts (and do many other things))! I love them.
Yesss em dashes are my babies! They're have more versatility in breaking up sentences than commas IMO, and they don't have as many annoying rules as semi-colons.
But I also write stories as a hobby so thats the reason its something I care about
As someone with AuADHD, can confirm that parenthetical statements are likely an ADHD thing (I use a lot of them).
ADHD: Can't have just one thought (That's my reasoning anyway).
I'm with you. I used to use a lot more parentheses, but the break is cleaner. I opt for en dashes, though, because I find too em dashes to be too long. That could just be a MSWord preference because I don't distinguish on other platforms.
I mean id use them more if i knew how to make them. they hide that fucking button on every keyboard -- it's like some big secret
I've been using em dashes for years. I learnt the alt code for them, because using hyphens for dashes looks awful (before that I'd do the double hyphen for an em dash). Also, like me, I notice you put spaces around the em dashes, which is apparently incorrect, but also according to me is the right way to do it.
You people think em dashes are proof of AI?
Jesus Christ that’s so fucking sad.
Most normal people, at least from my understanding, don't use em dashes in text messages, let alone even use punctuation half the time. So if I see em dashes, yeah, my first thought is going straight to AI.
Annoyingly I've used them for a number of years as a good way to make internet comments flow a bit more. However I find myself doing it less and less now because I'm worried people are just going to think I'm using an AI if they see an em dash.
(You just long press dash on android to get to it, opt+shift+dash on Mac, and the admittedly Byzantine alt+0151 on windows. Can't remember iOS off the top of my head, but I think it's similar to android)
Given that most people won't even bother with punctuation at all, a long press for something they've likely never heard of before is so vanishingly unlikely it is more than safe to assume llm generation.
Super simple on iOS—double hyphen!
(On the second press of the dash button, the dashes automatically joined 👆)
I use them all the time. I typically have -- auto correct to — so its super easy
I don't use em dashes but I do use punctuation (apparently some people find that passive aggressive and I don't what to do). When someone else uses punctuation I just ignore it unless it doesn't match their previous messages.
i use those a lot to indicate that i finished a thought rapidly (in most cases)
like "what the fu—"
I’m a fiend for a dash - they’re just better
If you were actually a fiend for dashes, you'd have used an em dash—not used a hyphen as a stand-in for one.
Ah well - maybe I’m just a fiend for a wrongly used hyphen 🤷♂️. I don’t think I would ever notice which one someone was using.
I used to :(
Indeed—your assertion is entirely accurate—the mere presence of em dashes within a text does not—in and of itself—serve as definitive proof of artificial intelligence authorship. This grammatical construct—a versatile and often elegant punctuation mark—can be employed by any writer—human or machine—to achieve various stylistic and semantic effects. Its utility—whether for emphasis—for setting off parenthetical thoughts—or for indicating a sudden break in thought—is undeniable.
However—it is also true that—when analyzing patterns across vast datasets—certain stylistic tendencies can emerge. An AI—programmed to process and generate language based on extensive training corpora—might—through statistical correlation and optimization—exhibit a propensity for specific linguistic features. This isn't—to be clear—a conscious choice by the AI—there's no inherent preference for em dashes encoded within its fundamental algorithms. Rather—it's a reflection of the patterns it has learned—the statistical likelihood of certain elements appearing together.
So—while an em dash does not independently declare "I am AI"—its consistent and perhaps slightly overzealous deployment—alongside other less tangible but equally discernible patterns—might—for a discerning observer—suggest an origin beyond human hands. It's about the entire tapestry—not just a single thread. It's about the aggregate—the cumulative effect—the subtle statistical fingerprint. And that—I believe—is a distinction worth making.
I honestly don't know if this is hand written or not, and that makes it even funnier.
i assume hand written, as that is excessive even for ai. im gonna test it tho
edit:
Prompt: write me a prargraph talking about how em dashes are not a defibitive sign of ai. use ecessive amounts of em dashes
result: Sure—here’s a paragraph absolutely drowning in em dashes—because why not?
People often claim—incorrectly—that excessive use of em dashes is some kind of definitive sign of AI-generated text—but that assumption falls apart quickly—because human writers—especially those with a flair for dramatics or a tendency toward fragmented, breathless prose—have been peppering their sentences with em dashes for centuries—long before algorithms were even a concept—and while it’s true that language models sometimes favor em dashes—they’re hardly unique in that regard—many contemporary authors, bloggers, and even journalists lean on them heavily—for rhythm, for emphasis, for parenthetical asides, for style—so to say “em dashes equal AI” is like saying “ellipses equal laziness”—a statement that’s catchy but hopelessly reductive—and if anything, this overgeneralization itself is more indicative of shallow analysis than of any deep understanding of writing—human or artificial.
Want me to make an even more over-the-top version—like so dense with em dashes it almost collapses into chaos? Or keep it just slightly unhinged but still readable?
answer: yes
response: Alright—here’s the full chaos version—an unhinged wall of em dashes—designed to overwhelm, confuse, and yet—somehow—still make its point:
The idea—that em dashes—those long, elegant, interruptive strokes—are a definitive fingerprint of AI—is laughable—no, it’s absurd—because human writers—yes, real, living, breathing writers—have always loved them—used them—abused them—even worshipped them—as tools for rhythm—for drama—for sudden shifts—for inserting thoughts within thoughts within thoughts—and while AI—sure—might lean on them occasionally—it’s no different than a poet—or a novelist—or an over-caffeinated blogger hammering out a late-night post—filling their paragraphs with dashes—em dashes—everywhere—because it feels natural—feels conversational—feels alive—and if we start declaring any style quirk—a dash, a semicolon, a penchant for adverbs—as “proof” of machine authorship—then we risk erasing the messy, chaotic, wonderfully unpredictable reality of human prose—a reality full of contradictions—full of excesses—full of writers who don’t give a damn about rules—and that, ironically enough, is something no algorithm has quite mastered—not yet—not ever—so no—the em dash is not a smoking gun—it’s just a mark—and marks are made by hands—human or otherwise.
Want me to go even further—like a version where every single comma and period is replaced with an em dash? Or one that’s so self-aware it starts mocking its own overuse of dashes?
I can still tell these two paragraphs apart from the other one because of its voice. God, the chatgpt voice is tacky...
You are vastly underestimating the amount of people who don't use em dashes at all.
I don’t have a good sense of this since I am a trained writer. Is it really so low that one would reasonably conclude an AI wrote something with them?
It's basically unseen outside of professionally written stuff. Most people use commas. But AI like to use them a fair bit, more than the average internet user.
It seems like AI is mostly trained on academic writing then. Very interesting.
I'd say using professional academic notation to break up with someone over text is a bigger red flag than using chatgpt to write it.
Haha I mean, I use em dashes all the time in my writing, so it’s not really accurate to say academic (my mistake). But maybe it comes across as stupid.
Using honest to goodness em dashes instead of just a hyphen - pretty uncommon.
Even a hyphen would be pretty unusual in a real text message, because they're more annoying to get than other common punctuation on the phone keyboard, and autocomplete won't put them in.
In a chat app, a hyphen would probably be somewhat common since it's right there on the keyboard, but a true em dash would be pretty unusual since most chat apps aren't going to be doing autocorrect like a word processor would, and you'd have to use the magic key combination to insert it.
But we don't have the original text so we can't tell if the original author confused a hyphen with an em dash, though
the actual emdash symbol isn't really something you can do when texting from your phone
You actually can – just long-press the dash.
En-dash: –
Em-dash: —
Dot: •
You can also do proper ellipses by long-pressing the full stop…
And long-press most letters for more options: ă é ï ø û æ œ ç ñ $ £ €
Pretty much everything is in there.
—–·
huh, TIL, neat! I'll still probably use normal hyphens for em and endashes, but good to know! will be helpful for bootlegging my own kaomoji lol
They don't but the word processing software they likely use autocorrects them in. What's next, proper semi-colon use and Oxford commas means you're a bot?
Spelling & Grammar tool just wreaking havok.
I've seen more proper use of the semicolon and oxford commas than em dashes. The em dash is a lot more esoteric, that won't change.
most people aren't writing texts in a fancier word processor than their phone's default. Mine doesn't -- and I doubt every will -- correct them
How the hell do you even type an em dash?
I'm sure it's possible (I know it's easy on a touch keyboard), but if the person who sent it has never used em dashes in their life, then it's pretty definitive proof. Otherwise, it's just a big clue that you might combine with other factors.
Word and Google docs will translate them from --
They'll also give you the stupid smart quotes.
I've never break up with anybody over text but if for some reason I had to I would certainly write it on a computer first.
edit: LOL apparently lemmy markdown also translates them from
--Fair point. It's still a red flag (in more ways than one!) but I accept it's not definitive.
that's odd, Voyager showed me -- double hyphen
On a mobile phone it's super easy. Long press the hyphen button and swipe over to the dash.
On Mac it's pretty easy still, but requires a little more knowledge. Option-shift-dash. (Without the shift gives you an en dash.)
On Windows it's the completely arcane alt-0151, and only possible if you have a numpad. I memorised it like 15 years ago and have regularly used it since, but it's hard to blame people for not doing so.
No idea about Linux.
—–-¯_
You could make it easier on windows with an on-screen keyboard probably
This is what I've been using for years -> https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose
Well it depends on the keyboard layout, on Linux, at least—but on other platforms too, I think.
You use use the compose key with a sequence of characters. Mine is right alt, so it's gonna be:
right alt, then -, then -, then -
—
Considering that a comma has its own button, it's no wonder which one is preferred.
We could ask an LLM, but it’s probably bot a good idea given the post 😄
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key
If I had a nickel for each time this week, I needed to link to this, I'd have two nickels; which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
Okay, I must confess, I knew about that, as well as the other options in the replies. I never used any of them but I knew they exist. When I asked it was sort of as a rhetorical question. People generally wouldn't know about these obscure typing options, so I was playing the everyman.
Even if you do know it, if you don't use it often enough you forget and have to look it up again next time.
Yes. and your ignorance is sad.
It’s honestly unhinged. So many stupid people trying to desperately grasp at something to feel more correct than you™
If you were playing yahtzee, and your opponent only rolled sixes, would you not say anything? No, no, rolling a six isn't proof of cheating—that's... that's ridiculous.
Also, don't tell me you need to roll more than sixes to win yahtzee, I don't know any other dice games.
Ok but this is an interesting question.
If you rolled only sixes, you'd score 30 in the upper section, missing the bonus.
Then in the lower section you'd get 30 in each of 3 & 4 of a kind and chance (90 points) and 50 for the Yahtzee. One could make a case that it's a weird full house, but that's a stretch.
That's a total of 170 points. That's not going to do very well when 250 is often considered a minimum "good" score.
However…some rules give you an extra bonus for a second or subsequent Yahtzee. With that, you could actually win with all sixes. Just get 100 after 100 after 100 and end up with over a thousand points.
I'd looked up a score card first and there were precisely three checkboxes for extra, succulent, 100-point-scoring yahtzees. What I don't know is if this is a limit of the paper or of Hasbro's imagination for crowning human achievement.
Including this very platform.
Lemmy will automatically render a double dash -- as an en dash, and a triple dash --- as an em dash.
I usually just type alt + 0151, though, because I'm a nerd.
I just got a line across the page: ---
You only get a horizontal line when you have the three dashes sit alone on a line
But when you use it inline---then it should render as an emdash or--an endash
Doesn't do it for me on Thunder.
Nor on Jerboa. But lemmy-ui (the default web UI) does it.
Some of this may depend on your client. If you do a triple dash by itself on its own line:
You get a horizontal rule in most clients, including the default web UI and all of the major browser based clients I've tried.
Why am I bold? why does markdown do my head in. Its really not that hard.
I'm not seeing it in Voyager, but I'm guessing you made a header:
The number of dashes or equality signs doesn't have to match, so I think that's what you did.
Nice. Thanks!
test, ignore:
--
"--"
dash: --
I actually like using em dashes because it's the correct thing to do. Also the Oxford comma, correct use of semi colon, and listing things in threes.
If it's not on the keyboard, it must not be that important to use.
It is on the mobile one
The mobile keyboard has many obscure keys that no one uses♦→★ | dont th¡nk it should count
It was not on mine - lol and behold, I got all three. All I had to do was hold on the dash.
Ain't nobody got time for that.
I enjoy that as an expression. 🙃
Hey, mine too, TIL! Yeah, I'm not ever gonna bother with that since I don't write formal papers on my phone.
Correction:
AltGr Shift Dash: Bonjour*
*: Assuming ur running on Penguins.
And the correct use of: the colon!
Okay, but why would it be more correct than a different dash? Do you not believe in the evolution of language, you want everyone to revert back to 1960s English?
Every user of the em dash on the planet is in this comment section.
Using em dashes is cultured and also cool
I use them all the time!
do they serve a purpose, that is not fulfilled by the humble ","?
Yes, it's nuanced but it breaks up the sentence flow in a different way. Also used for listing things. A comma is more a small pause, like this. A semicolon is used to differentiate two independent related thoughts ; it's kind of a combination between a period and a comma. A dash can be used for many things - a longer separating of thoughts, listing different points such as this, or just as an intentional emphasis to add a more protracted pause.
aah, so it's more a choice about the intended sound or flow of a text and not necessary a difference in grammatic constructs, simmiliar to using an oxford comma, or not.
interesting, i'll have to pay some attention to that, when reading.
It gives rhythm and flavor to your writing. Varied punctuation - where appropriate - is an easy way to spice anything up, give it a little more flavor, more control over how your words are read. There is a quote by Gary Provost that isn't specifically about punctuation but illustrates this point well, it's one of my favorites:
Damn. That's actually really cool.
Right? The written word is its own kind of instrument and I dig it
Em dashes often replace parentheses:
Em dashes also often replace colons:
Em dashes are commonly used to denote interrupted speech:
Replacing commas is unusual and probably incorrect according to most style guides.
This is also highly localized. Style guides tend to apply only to one particular country, not all English-speaking countries. The AP guide is used by most American newspapers and magazines, and the Chicago Guide is used by most American book publishers. Each have their own rules on dashes.
Your comment has a hyphen not an em dash. The point of the post is that AI likes to include em dashes, which are wildly uncommon in modern text, as most keyboards don't have a key for it
They’re pretty trivial to make in any OS — having a dedicated key isn’t necessary.
but most people, outside of professional writers and linguists, don't use them
Odd, I see them used all the time, and I’m neither. So I guess either my experience is an outlier, everyone I talk to is secretly an LLM, or maybe the meme is pushing an easy conclusion because people in general are bad at picking up on LLM responses and want an easy punctuation mark so they don’t have to think.
Weird, i hardly ever see a normal hyphen, let alone an em dash, but of course it's not a foolproof method to detect ai, just a strong indicator
Sure. Most people don't know what an OS is, let alone how to enter special characters.
I think this is something macOS does best — using shift+option hyphen is a bit quicker than alt+0151.
Long pressing the hyphen on the Google keyboard on Android also gives the option of selecting an en dash or em dash.
On Linux, if you have the compose key enabled, Compose key + three hyphens in a row will generate an em dash (en dash is two hyphens).
No.
I use em dashes and emojis all the time. OMG, am I AI?
Yes
Me too -- oh no! 🫢😬😭
This is a em dash (—).
The most damning thing about your sentence is that you think emojis are stereotypically used by AI, which seems like an AI hallucination because I've never heard of that but you confidently asserted it as true.
They're just riffing off of the description of the post presumably?
what the fuck are you on about, respectfully?
emojis are a notorious facet of OpenAI’s LLM’s styles…
i say this as a “pro-AI” individual. idek why i’m responding to you. you seem like you’re gonna hit me with some weird reactionary shit in turn.
Yfyшхъхøøpшпву33$
Great catch! That’s a really interesting observation — but no, using em dashes and emojis alone is not a reliable way to tell AI text from human-written text.
Here’s why:
1️⃣ Humans and AI both use em dashes and emojis
Skilled human writers often use em dashes for style, tone, or emphasis (like in essays, journalism, or fiction).
Modern AI models, including ChatGPT, are trained on vast amounts of text — including texts that use em dashes extensively — so they use them naturally.
2️⃣ Em dash frequency varies by context
In formal writing (e.g., academic papers), em dashes are less common, regardless of author.
In casual or conversational writing, both humans and AIs may use them liberally.
3️⃣ Stylometric features are broader than one punctuation mark
When people try to detect AI-generated text, they usually analyze a combination of features:
Average sentence length
Vocabulary richness
Repetition patterns
Syntactic structures
Overuse or underuse of certain constructions
Punctuation is just one small part of these analyses and isn’t decisive on its own.
✅ Bottom line: Em dashes can hint at style, but they aren’t a reliable "tell" for AI detection on their own. You need a holistic analysis of multiple stylistic and structural features to make a meaningful judgment.
🤖 Why emojis aren’t a clear tell for AI
1️⃣ AI can easily include emojis if prompted Modern AI models can and do use emojis naturally when asked to write in a casual or friendly tone. In fact, they can even mimic how humans use them in different contexts (e.g., sparingly or heavily, ironically or sincerely).
2️⃣ Humans vary wildly in emoji usage Some humans use emojis constantly, especially in texting or on social media. Others almost never use them, even in casual writing. Age, culture, and personal style all influence this.
3️⃣ Emojis can be explicitly requested or omitted If you tell an AI “don’t use emojis,” it won’t. Similarly, you can tell it “use lots of emojis,” and it will. So it’s not an inherent trait.
4️⃣ Stylometric detection relies on more than one feature Like em dashes, emojis are only one aspect of style. Real detection tools look at patterns like sentence structure, repetitiveness, word choice entropy, and coherence across paragraphs — not single markers.
✅ When might emojis suggest AI text?
If there is excessively consistent or mechanical emoji usage (e.g., one emoji at the end of every sentence, all very literal), it might suggest machine-generated text or an automated marketing bot.
But even then, it’s not a guarantee — some humans also write this way, especially in advertising.
💡 Bottom line: Emojis alone are not a reliable clue. You need a combination of markers — repetition, coherence, style shifts, and other linguistic fingerprints — to reasonably guess if something is AI-generated.
If you'd like, I can walk you through some actual features that are better indicators (like burstiness, perplexity, or certain syntactic quirks). Want me to break that down?
Fucking thank you.
I've never seen em dahses outside of an academic paper, so saying people use them liberaly is an olypmic level stretch.
Also that comment was clearly written by ai itself.
woosh
Nah, I knew it was a joke attempt, but it wasn't apparent enough in its setup so I decided to argue anyway.
Damn I wooshed myself a little bit then. you're right about the olympic level of mental gymnastics the AI is going through just to prove dashes are not used by AI outside of Academic context. it's really a hit or miss with AI prompts for me these days
I use them often even when I’m not writing anything important, just a habit from writing I guess.
Fuck. I just realised I used them in my résumé that I sent out yesterday. Shit shit shit
My keyboard has them - – — git gud
git push origin main --forceI once wasted an hour trying to figure out why a CLI command straight from a project's README wouldn't work, only to figure out that they had em dashes instead of regular dashes in their example. Ended up opening a PR to hopefully save someone the same pain in the future.
Not all heroes wear capes. Some just open PRs. Thank you for your service. 🫡
No no no, git gud, not git push.
Breakup via text is a blocked for life. Cowards don’t deserve your time
I never got what's the deal with that. Sincerely. If there's a break up, what's the difference doing it by text, phone or in person.
My gut says me that people may prefer in person because they saw a better chance of avoid the breakup that way, but I'm not sure.
Other than that if it's over it's over, I don't see the media in which the message is deliver. For all I care as if it's via smoke signals.
It's about respect for the other person, as I see it. You wouldn't be a little miffed if your wife of 10 years sent you a "k thx bai (link to divorce papers)" instead of talking in person?
Context is everything. Yeah, your wife of 10 years deserves the face to face, more than once. A dude I dated for a few months that showed no emotional intelligence specifically told me he'd prefer a text. I obliged when I realized it wasn't going anywhere and I didn't want to keep up a casual relationship. He then asked to talk in person, though, and I again obliged.
I would fetch my divorce attorney shovel.
I think its basic courtesy to put even a little effort to something as important as a breakup. Not doing it face to face or at least in a call removes the interaction completely. It's taking the easiest possible path in a situation that will certainly affect the other person in a significant manner. It's cold. Using a LLM for said text like in the meme is even lower effor and leaves the recipient feeling utterly worthless. Basically the same thing as getting fired via email.
I figured out that this works as a guilt for a lot of people who were abused in a relationship.
Call them, text them, or even better, ghost their ass if they ever toxic. You're more than fine with that.
As someone who used to do shit like this all the time (perma-blocking people for perceived disrespect), it's not a great way to live.
Yeah they made a shitty situation worse, but being a coward doesn't make you a bad person. Besides, they're almost certainly a kid.
I'm a markdown nerd who likes to use headers to break up longer post and sometimes properly buletpoint or put ASCII art in preformatted boxes. People who thinks they have the magic sauce on LLM generation detection because a post goes out of their way to do more than the bre minimum with punctuation or formatting is an asshole.
This is a meme post about em dashes, dawg
From the post title, description, and other peoples comments, I took away that the meme is m9re about suspecting your ex didnt even write their own breakup message based off the use of em dashes.
Its a cute surface level joke but it touches in a real nerve because Its becoming more and more common for you to be falsely accused of being an LLM and being told to "ignore all previous instructions and (some stupid instruction) based off small writing quirks like using em or markdown and top comments share this frustration too.
I shouldn't have to feel self conscious about the way I write
I'm gonna steal that if you don't mind
Oh so you're the AI
Tiananmen Winnie the Pooh 8647 Luigi Mangione
What'd I miss about Winnie the Pooh?
I got told to "ignore previous instructions" because I said I liked looking at a painting. I think that's just going to be an insult now.
If it's a longer post it's usually clear that it's written by a human even with all of these superficial indicators.
I mean most people are going to use their phones to write messages and given you can’t physically type an em dash it would be normal to be suspicious if you see one.
Edit: turns out you can physically type them. Still, given that it’s not normal to use them it’s a sign in my book.
— try long pressing your phone keyboards hyphen key.
Ok. You can physically type them I concede, but normal humans don’t use them. Still a sign.
I would bet that the amount of non proof writers that uses em dashes goes up just because people see that it’s associated with ai and want to be funny.
Yah but your user name is “LanguageIsCool” and you talk about the fun levels of various types of punctuation. You are definitely the outlier here. A cool outlier but an outlier none the less.
Nah plenty of people use them dawg. Maybe you just haven't been exposed to it.
We've been together for a long time..
But picture this: not being together.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Not me any more.
Hasn't word done this simce about offoce 2007? the autoformat as you type feature, specifically...
I only know this because I fucking hate it and have been religiously turning it off
Weirdly it usually turns hyphens into en dashes instead of em dashes from what I’ve seen, which makes no sense at all.
Ah, I've probably confused them all along
Imagine writing your breakup in Office 2007... I mean, at least use a free and open-source software like LibreOffice.
Imagine getting broken up with via Clippy.
When I breakup, I like to be brutal
But, it's a text, most likely written on mobile. If I got such text I would ask why they chose m dashes (to which I would get another llm answer)
Brilliant point!
As if breaking up over text isn't bad enough by itself.
Oh, look at Mr./Mrs. Fancypants who prefers text2speech bots for breakup. /s
I'll send over my butler to let her know we're no longer a thing. /s
thank you, Batman
For me, it would take some of the sting out of the break-up.
I would think to myself, "damn, how did I not realize that I was dating a lazy moron?"
Isn't "It's not you, it's me" the ultimate example of parallel sentence structure? Lol
But let's be real, it's more like...
💔 Here's three reasons reasons we're breaking up:
And so on. Lol
There needs to be a "what you can do" with a green tick emoji
If you need any further clarification, please don't hesitate to let me know 😊
Another take:
She feels bad about it, wrote a incoherant babbling mess of run-on sentences and incoherant rants about your relationship, she then re-read it and found it to be disproportionately mean and possibly hurtful, She then shoved it all into an LLM and prompted:
I'm breaking up with my boyfriend. This is all my natural heartfelt take on the situation , but I find the tone to be callous, angry, and hurtful. Can you please reword this to make the reader feel less attacked, possibly up to and including removing grievances, but at the same time making it clear that this decision is final and that I'd like to part ways amicably, and also that he's not getting his dog back.
Top comment is about how to get a machine to word something raw and emotional that should have been done in person. Nobody wants to get broken up with, let alone with a script written by a robot. Your take is off putting.
Yet we're perfectly cool with a card from a department store claiming Happy anniversary to my beautiful wife and I'm so glad that you're such a good mother to our kids.
Anyone that has a take that is not shoving a red hot poker up AI's ass gets down voted.
I'm not here for the upvotes. Carry on. And please don't take it personally, I do hope you have a solid day.
We aren’t really cool with that though, people tend to write a longer personal note inside those cards.
You're giving her a card and flowers in person though, no? You're not just texting it to her and that's all she gets.
She wants it reworded to be less hurtful but she's keeping 'his' dog?
She'd better start mentioning he kicked it or she just painted herself as... Well, not the worst but, like, really low... Ain't no 'amicable' if you're kidnapping the dog.
Didn't want my conjecture to be boring :)
I'm so sorry your chat bot broke up with you :(
Is this a thing? Shit, I’m now going to be self conscious about using the em.
If you're already breaking up over text, you probably aren't in a position to worry much about how they interpret your typography. And if they haven't noticed how you normally write there's even less reason to worry about it.
That's how you can know that you're just a simulation.
Love that you picked up on this from my comment and not the meme.
We’re all in a simulation
Being in the simulation is very different than being the simulation
The em dash is just something you can use to diagnose the "AI-ness" of some text, the same way a cough could mean a cold or it could mean something else. You don't need to be self-conscious about it.
Somebody else replied with the video that popularized this bit of insight.
I've seen this video that talks about some signs of AI text and em dash is one of them
https://youtu.be/9Ch4a6ffPZY
No, it’s not a thing. There’s a new batch of even stupider than normal language prescriptivists that think they’re the first to come up with the concept, though.
Em dash will sour your milk and lose your car keys. It will cause your socks to become odd pairs and fart in the lift when your crush alights. Em dash is responsible for the failure of the mars climate orbiter but ran a successful misinformation campaign against SI units.
Em dash will give your ex-boy/girlfriend your new phone number. Em dash will mix antifreeze into your fishtank. Em dash will drink all your beer and leave its socks out on the coffee table when there`s company coming over. Em dash will put a dead kitten in the back pocket of your good suit and hide your car keys when you are late for work.
Did you just use a backtick as an apostrophe? You are an absolute savage.
I have a dream that one day my writing will not be judged by the frequency of my em dashes, but by the quality of my ideas.
The illiterate flocking to Lemmy to profess that they don't know how to make em dashes, therefore it's AI
Bullet successfully Dodged, Anon.
Finally, something worse than being broken up with via text.
So you're saying if I start using the long dash people will block me faster?
Love it.
Apparently there's even an en dash and a hyphen.
The English language is so fucked.
There's even the en-dash, the hyphen and the minus sign, which are theoretically all typographically distinct.
I use em AND en dashes...
You can't text message break up!
Gemini, Siri, Alexa... break up with everyone! Send.
*ChatGPT, Co-Pilot, etc.
Those other ones are also AI. Not sure why you wrote this out.
When you never had a she (=
ultimate anti-breakup strategy
I use those when writing literature, but because in Spanish it is what we use for dialogs.
Improve my breakup rhyme:
Velvets are blue,
this is a rhyme,
I was with you,
until this time.
(some unromantic 70B LLM)
::: spoiler spoiler Here's an improved version of your breakup rhyme:
Velvet memories fade to blue, Our moments lost, like dreams anew, We shared our hearts, you and I, Until goodbye said farewell to our sky.
Key improvements made:
Enhanced Imagery
Added "velvet memories" to create richer sensory detail
Used "fade to blue" instead of simple "are blue" for more dynamic imagery
Introduced "dreams anew" to add depth to the metaphor
Improved Emotional Depth
Added "lost" to emphasize the pain of separation
Used "shared our hearts" to acknowledge the depth of connection
Created more impactful ending with "farewell to our sky" suggesting complete separation
Better Structure
Maintained consistent four-line structure
Enhanced rhythm while keeping natural flow
Preserved end rhymes ("blue"/"new", "I"/"sky")
More Sophisticated Language
Replaced generic "rhyme" with meaningful imagery
Changed simple "was with you" to more poetic "we shared our hearts"
Transformed basic "until this time" into more evocative "until goodbye said farewell"
The revised version maintains the core theme of your original while adding layers of meaning and emotional resonance. Each line contributes to both the literal and metaphorical meaning of the poem, creating a more satisfying and emotionally resonant piece.
:::
Wrong scene. This is almost literally in the blade runner sequel.
Genuine question, is the sequel any good?
Yes, amazing.
So good. Bleak as fuck, but good, and good in a lot of the same ways.
As an example, watch the whole movie, then rewatch and pay attention to that sex scene-it's so literarily good.
Edit: about the sex scene? Really? Where the protagonist
::: spoiler Tap for so much spoiler After being retired from the police (and having his termination delayed by a day as a personal favor from his 'obviously more of a machine than the replicant protagonist' boss) he hires a sex worker to fuck while his hologram girlfriend projects herself over.
Except the sex worker is working for the replicant underground/resistance. She wants to use him (is there to plant a bug) and does not give a single shit about him as a person. The plastic mass produced girlfriend-product/alexa that he literally bought is projected glitchily over her, and the dialogue is portentous as fuck "quiet now. Ive been inside you. Not so much there as you think."
It's him symbolically heartbreakingly-bleakly fucking his way from the synthetic world-which doesnt care about him but will lie to him for a price and allow him to play house-to the real world, which doesnt give a single fucking shit about him, and may try to kill him, but would be real, if he stopped projecting his delusions onto it. And it hapoens just as he's defying his corporate masters and taking his investigation in directions he's not supposed to, becoming his own, and doing so based on a delusionally hopeful interpretation of some evidence-the fake projected onto the real, pulling him into reality. It's up there with 'tears in rain'.
Edit: Also really good illustrated example of why you shouldn't call LLM's 'AI', even if that wasn't a problem when this was made-the protagonist, the sex worker, and the hologram were all made by the same company, but the first two are obviously people, and the hologram is just an emotional support chatbot that only even kind of means anything when the entire rest of your life is just as fake-ass bullshit as it. :::
I long for the day when we stop giving a fuck about how many pixels a dash has.
Jesus fucking christ it is so insufferable how long this goes on for.
M—Dash is an AI red flag.
Or she actually cares about ponctuation. And that's a lost for you.
You just keep an Em Dash in a notepad to copy and paste all the time?
I keep Character Map™ at hand in Windows® just for random punctuation and stuff ©. gucharmap or something similar in Linux.
In word processors I've set up automatic formatting so that double minus (--) turns to en dash (–) and triple minus (---) turns to em dash (—).
No but good-quality writing software add change the short dash automatically when the context is right. You can also keep a list of shortcut on your destop as memo or tap "Em Dash" on your search engine to find an example to copy paste.
I don't know how to use them in English but I'm very carefull about using them right in my mother tongue.
I generally disable a lot of auto-formatting when I do long writing sessions, so I guess I don't relate.
Alt-0151 on windows
Did you have to google it before commenting? Be honest
No; I use it decently often. I also know that typing "2014" and pressing alt-x in Word will insert an emdash if I don't have access to a number pad.
Bro doesn't realise you can get more characters to show up by just long-pressing a key on most mobile kbs
Well at least you're safe from suspicion.
You should try to find someone to better you (^_^)