Ask HN: Why does LLMs love the usage of –?

5 points by reimertz 49 days ago | 5 comments

It was really uncommon pre-ai that you saw the usage of — in emails. So I wonder why all LLMs default to it so often?

An example;

GoDaddy: only needed if we end up moving DNS hosting off Squarespace. If so, delegate access is cleanest — from Account Settings → Delegate Access, invite {emal} with "Products, Domains & Purchase" permissions (full login works too if that's easier). One thing to flag: the domain currently has GoDaddy's update lock / Domain Protection on, which blocks nameserver changes — you may need to lift that for the change to take.

It's such a giveway for AI-generated content that I prompt "Please don't use – in any of your responses."

mrpound 49 days ago |

Em-dashes historically been very common in nonfiction and literature and are a very versatile way to compose more complex sentences and provide an alternative to comma-separated clauses, colons, parentheses, etc. I think AI is just reflecting something that fell out of common usage as part of a general trend of people reading less and paying less attention to punctuation and sentence construction. Now it's seen as a tell for someone using AI, but if you pick up any book written in the last 200 years you'll see tons of em-dashes.

weldu 48 days ago | |

For reference, the Bible, which was written/translated long before LLMs, uses em dashes numerous times

reimertz 49 days ago | |

So a good tell on me that I need to read more books. :)

yepyoukno 49 days ago |

As a list item delineation?

It is both the YAML and Markdown convention is it not?

Or are you referring to some other context?

minimaxir 49 days ago | |

They are referring to em-dashes, not normal dashes.