Why the Em Dash Isn't an AI Tell

Why the Em Dash Isn't an AI Tell(idiotmystic.com)

3 points by zakelfassi 216 days ago | 5 comments

dkersten 213 days ago |

It’s a flag. On its own, it doesn’t mean that the content was synthesized by AI, but if there are a number of these flags together, then chances are high.

No singular red flag means much in isolation, but it’s a signal that when combined with others can give a pretty good prediction.

chasing0entropy 216 days ago |

All of my reddit profiles now admit I am a bot because of this myth - also I believe we are all bots.

zakelfassi 216 days ago | |

Honestly, the best response is to embrace our inner botness. It's just humans being humans — before, they might've said "this is too smart for you to say," and now they've found a new excuse. So be it.

wryoak 216 days ago |

Oh no! I’d been noticing an unusual amount of em dash discussion recently, but hadn’t investigated why. In college my professors would accuse me of plagiarizing my essays because I wrote so much more competently than I spoke. Now I’m going to be accused of employing AI for one of the few practices I find too enjoyable ever to source to an LLM. Oh well.

zakelfassi 215 days ago | |

I had a similar experience here on HN. One of my blog posts recently made it to the front page, and I ended up getting brigaded. I had to add a dozen AI-use disclaimers around the blog, not even the piece itself. It was surreal.

I get the anxiety about authenticity, but sometimes the witch-hunt feels more automaton-like than the tools themselves. For what it's worth, I've written publicly about my process ––how I use AI as scaffolding, not ghostwriting–– in my standing note on AI use.

The discomfort around augmented intelligence is fascinating + telling. I sometimes wonder if the same people browse HN on typewriters or pray for the next X-class solar flare so we can all return to rock carving.