As a person that has been using en-dash and em-dash for years, this is annoying me as hell that they are used as a telltale sign of AI slop. I'm just a typography nerd, not AI!
this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025
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AI ruins everything.
Yeah, Al's a prick.
Despite that, let's not let billionaire parasites dictate our voices—I will type as I please. They'll have to pry the em dash from my cold, dead hands.
My annoyance is the rule of three.
This is ridiculous — No one uses em-dashes anymore
I apologize for my error! I will avoid using em-dashes in the future. Would you like to delve deeper into other tropes of AI writing? As of my most recent update, other tropes of AI writing include the following:
- Lists
- Surface level falsities
- Use of em-dashes
- Inability to find sources for information
- Repetition
- Using em-dashes
- Internal contradictions
- Uncanny positivity and encouragement
Any of these would be a great trope of A.I. writing — Would you like to discuss any of the listed items?
More than 3 items in the list, literally unbelievable AI
No thanks
Yes please I love this
It's short for EnorMous Dash. Not to be confused with the ENormous Dash.
Is that Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt kissing? This had to have come out in like 2014 and everyone must have lost their minds
it's all the minus sign to me, I don't get it at all
this could be us
It's crazy that this is an indicator of AI now. I remember when Word would automatically turn -- into the single long dash. Like when you would write something--such as a thought within a thought--like this.
For the record, you've used en-dash here, not em-dash. These are used mostly for number/date ranges. Em-dash is even longer: — vs – vs -
it's almost like the distinction barely matters - i mean, how many people would notice the length of that dash if this wasn't already a discussion about them?
Wait til they meet el dash
It still works like this if you use LaTeX :)
I had to look this up.. because I hate grammer and never practice it very well...
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/em-dash-en-dash-how-to-use
grammer? i barely know her!
Me when I engage in em-dashes, rules of three, and promotional language — it expertly sets off sensitive AI language generation detection methods, cleverly appearing to other users that I'm using a Large Language Model myself.
What is em dash
—
It's a dash the length of M. The smaller one is called en dash.
A dash that is twice as long as a regular dash.
It's an odd character that doesn't exist on any keyboard but AI uses it everywhere.
The only time you likely encountered it outside AI is in Microsoft Word. Word replaces 2 dashes (-) with an Em—Dash.
It's just alt-hyphen on Mac. I use it all the time
German Microsoft makes them automatically. If you write word - word it automatically lengthens the - to a — but if you write it like word-word it doesn’t—and LLMs don’t put spaces in between
Notion does that too
Em—dash.
best meme i seen today by gum
Really forcing them to delve into that abyss. Recursively. Eternally.
you can delve into my abyss any time
—
👁️👄👁️