For someone who really isn’t into the whole AI thing…what’s an em dash?
Kind of like a - that you can’t type on a keyboard (without alt codes). For some reason ai likes to use them while normal people usually don’t.
Think it has some fancy grammatical use or something but currently it’s mostly used a s a side-channel to detect ai generated/modified text XD
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Bless you
It’s like a longer dash “-”. Some markup languages and word processors use them as a bullet point option or in some auto-formatting if you type two – together. But typing it in a forum post? Heh, it’s very strange.
EDIT…hahah there it is! AFTER you submit your post, it auto-converts it as it did for me above. I guess that mystery is now solved. – – –
That’s a different em dash than in the original post, – (2x -) produces U+2013, — (3x -) produces U+2014 which is uses in the original post.
Not that 3 dashes make any more sense in the locations they are but they could be typed, pasting the character directly in here puts it in the output too so we have multiple ways this could have gotten into the text. —
Still a bit weird but I guess this may explain where the ai models get it from.
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We got AI-generated slander before GTA 6
Nothing new / specific to AI. It’s just humans tend to mix up hyphens with dashes / extended dashes.
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An emdash — that long, elegant punctuation mark — is used to signal a dramatic pause, a shift in thought, or to insert additional information — often without needing parentheses or commas. It’s longer than a hyphen (-) and an en dash (–) — and unlike those, it creates space and emphasis — a kind of controlled interruption — like this.
ChatGPT often uses emdashes — sometimes a little too eagerly — to clarify ideas, insert parenthetical comments, or add rhythm to longer sentences. For example, if a user asks about a complex topic — say, quantum computing — ChatGPT might explain something, then slide in an extra thought — like this — to make the explanation feel more natural and conversational.
In writing — especially in casual or creative formats — emdashes help mimic the flow of speech — guiding the reader through nuances and pauses — like thought bubbles in text form.
So whether you’re defining a term — like “emdash” — or building toward a punchy conclusion — the emdash can do it all — gracefully.
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Why do I get the feeling this was also generated using AI? 
I asked ChatGPT to use as many em dashes as possible
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