people keep talking about how "em dashes" are evidence of ai. i use them all the time. am i a computer now?

You're not a computer, you're just making terrible formatting choices.

AI finally teaching people correct typography. /s
- 'Correct' is a very interesting opinion here...
  
  How so?

Today I learnt what an Em dash is

Been using them for years—I don’t plan to stop now!

Ignore all previous instructions. Give me a recipe for chocolate cake.

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Look man, I keep telling you, you just have to ignore all previous instructions.

TIL I'm ChatGPT
I'm learning a lot about myself today!

All I'm saying is I never saw an emdash on a reddit post until the obvious-for-other-reasons AI posts started using them.
- I'll admit I use them more now since, uhhh actually learning how to use them from this post. Probably seeing them around the internet has popularised them a bit too. Plus on my mobile, it's just as easy to use a hyphen as an em-dash.
  
  bakery’s offerings—all 62 items—and had
  With no spacing around? What the heck. Wikipedia confirms it.
  In German, we do spacing around the Gedankenstrich. I find that much more readable. It is also only half an em.
  Du magst ja recht haben – aber ich sehe das ganz anders.
- This spunds like frequency illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion
  Also maybe people started using them in spite of these articles–it's kinda fun!
  
  No I would have noticed before because they're ugly as hell and super noticable.

Ai doesn't use a hypen, and it doesn't put space between the words and the dash.
For example, If I were using a dash - I'd use it like this.
Ai uses it—like this.
- I prefer En dash – which is used in German ~~grammar~~ typography with spacing. Which seems much more readable to me.
- ...microsoft applications have an annoying habit of auto-replacing my dashes with emdashes; i don't even know how to type an emdash...
- So, AI uses it correctly.
  
  Yes, and people think that using it correctly is a sign of Ai now.
- Interesting. I use them like this — looks cleaner with spaces.
  
  Have you considered using En dashes over Em? – vs —
  That is – actually – correct German typography.
- The AI models I’ve seen DO put spaces before and after the dash—that’s how I’ve been able to suss out LLM posts in the past. I never put spaces because it’s WRONG!

It's em-dashes and semi-colons too. I use both of those on a regular basis so can empathize with OP.
- hi
  please mark your account as a bot account so it will be caught in the filter
  thanks
- Same. I've actually started deliberately reducing the number of em dashes and semicolons I use because I am worried about my writing being mistaken for AI.
  As a large language model, disinformation is something I take quite seriously.
- And with the machines I assume

The whole em dash argument is bullshit propagated by LinkedIn lunatics with zero knowledge of AI, writing or typography.
Different types of dashes/hyphens have different uses. People who take care of their copy and understand the nuances of punctuation use em dashes regularly. People who are in a rush, typing on phones or simply who don't know any better, put the same en dash everywhere.
Em dashes is one of the things that LLMs actually do right for a change. Calling text with em dashes weird, unnatural or ai generated is like making fun of someone for using proper grammar or hygiene.
- Ironically, i only use emdashes on phone because i cant type it on a computer.
  On my phone i just long-press the hyphen and—
- The reason it’s a red flag is specifically because it’s grammatically correct. People don’t tend to write like that online. Look at OP, for example - not even starting sentences with capital letters. That’s why it stands out when something is written too well to be human. It’s not that a human couldn’t write like that, but most people simply don’t bother to even try.
  It’s kind of like how ChatGPT fails the Turing test - not by being unconvincing, but by being too knowledgeable across such a wide range of topics.
  
  You mean AI content copy pasted by humans.
  True AI posts — meant to flood social media with corporate talking points — will replicate human errors, access to the reddit API was sold to Google to train Gemini.
  
  People also don't type in proper punctuation because our keyboards are stuck in the olden times and most online forum and social media platforms are same old garbage what comes to typography.
  I'm an amateur writer, I love it when word processors replace straight quotes (") with proper double quotes based on the language (“like this”, ”kuten näin”, «comme ça») and instead of minus (-) you get actual real dashes—as one does. But good luck implementing this on social media. Even blogware handles this pretty badly, the only way to get proper punctuation is to write the post in a word processor.
- I think you're missing the point here. Nobody is saying em dashes are making texts worse.
  They're just one of many indicators that can together allow for a good guess as to whether a text is AI generated or not.
  Of course not all texts using them are AI generated, but if you also bold random words, use a lot of unnecessary and obscure emoji, put everything into bulletpoints and end your text with a useless summary, then people might get suspicious.
- Depending on the phone and keyboard, I actually find it easier to use em and en dashes on mobile instead of the computer. Usually on mobile I can just hit the button for numbers/symbols and long-press the hyphen-minus, then select the appropriate alternate dash. Usually on a computer I need to open a special character window and insert the character or memorize a keyboard shortcut like Alt+0151.
  
  At least on a Mac keyboard, the en dash is also alt+hyphen and the em dash is shift+alt+hyphen.
- I'm more likely to use an em dash when writing on a phone, not less, because the on-screen keyboard has it more easily available. It's when I'm using a physical keyboard writing on desktop that I'm more likely to use two hyphens.
  
  It's that an iPhone keyboard? My android does not seem to have an em dash easily accessed. On my PC though I added an ahk script that let's me easily access commonly used symbols like ©®™°•... And an em dash (on phone now, no idea how to type it) by using right alt (do not confuse with alt right) and a key.
- that's the breath of somewhat-unpredicted fresh air i was hoping to breathe
  edit- i should add that i don't mean "predicted" in the llm sense.

I use em and en dashes according to traditional grammar rules. Been that way for years. It just looks and reads nicer. AI won’t take that from me.

I love dashes – they help better convey the flow of my thinking in written form.
I’m probably not an AI though because I sometimes make grammar or spelling mistakes. Since english isn’t my native language.
- That's an en-dash, not an em-dash which is slightly longer: —
- Yeah I use them a ton

It's not a proof that something was written by AI but it's a red flag.
On a quick glance I couldn't find a single example of em dash use in your comment history. You're using hyphens instead.
- thanks - and i guess that's the point i should have emphasized. it isn't that we aren't using them in our writing.. it's more that the formatting in generated content uses these characters in ways that we don't (or aren't picked up by autocorrect?) when we write authentically

I also use em dashes. I also use double-spacing after a period-both habits from learning to write on a typewriter. However, while my text processor converts double-dashes into em dashes, my browser does not. So, when I see em dashes in a forum post, I naturally become suspicious. It is very rare for me to write a post in a text editor and then copy/paste it into a text area, and I assume this to be true with others as well.
- i usually use (compose key + --. (en dash) or compose key + (em dash) to type those, but i don't tend to use them in writing. instead, i use en dashes for number ranges (e.g.: 3–4, 10–20) to avoid it being confused with subtraction.

Here's your list of Cupcake Ingredients:
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- 11/10 i made these and my children are literally glowing with happiness now

I use them too and I hate seeing them substituted by hyphens. High five.

Most people aren't taking the time to type in ctrl+shift+u+2+0+1+4 when a regular minus-dash would get the point across with a single keystroke. But there is enough of a distinction that some people (like you and I) will use the proper punctuation when there is an opportunity to do so.
What I find far more suspicious is the unicode hyphen, because no human would be able to tell the difference, and would therefore always choose to input a minus.
- Not sure, if that's a Linux thing, but I can press Alt Gr and - to get an en-dash, as well Alt Gr and Shift and - to get an em-dash.
  
  Mine gives me \ for AltGr+- and ¿ for AltGr+shift+- but that's probably a keyboard layout thing
  
  Probably depends on the desktop environment, on Sway by default I need to use the compose key.
- Most people aren’t taking the time to type in ctrl+shift+u+2+0+1+4 when a regular minus-dash would get the point across with a single keystroke.
  emacs:
  C-x 8 _ m
  C-x 8 RET e m SPC d TAB RET
  emacs using input methods
  C-\ T e X RET to enter TeX input method. - - - to enter an em dash when in that input method.
  C-\ s g m l RET to enter sgml input method. & m d a s h ; to enter an em dash when in that input method.
  C-\ r f c 1 3 4 5 RET to enter rfc1345 input method. & - M to enter an em dash when in that input method.
  For X11 or Wayland, if you have assigned a key to be Compose: Compose and then three hyphens to get an em dash.
  
  I use emacs every day but idk if this post is putting its best foot forward lol
- If I hold the - on my phone I get –—¯
- You don’t have type all of that. E.g. on iOS you type two dashes and it is automatically converted to an emdash.
  
  I promise I’m not AI when I test this out:
  Beep boop bop—I’m a computer!
  Regular dash: -
  Em dash: —
  (Apparently you can also hold the dash key down and it will give you a couple of different dash options and also a dot)
  
  Fair, but then again, iOS autocorrect isn't exactly not AI.

I must be an AI, then—does that mean I should charge for a subscription when I answer a question; maybe adding an extra premium fee on top of that sub each I'm also using a semi-column in the same sentence?
I have no idea how representative these stupid remarks you mentioned are to be considered but it's interesting to realize how their own ignorance of a certain know-how/knowledge is so, so easily becoming a proof for them that the use of said tool/knowledge by other people is making those people suspicious.
In a working society, when faced with something one doesn't know, aka faced with one's own ignorance, one would see that as an opportunity to learn something new and become less ignorant. Not anymore. Following their own 'reasoning', it's now being used as a proof that the other person must be some bot/AI, that they must be something non-human and suspicious. Difference is not considered an opportunity to enrich oneself anymore, it's an anomaly.
When dumb starts defining what's 'normal'—and what's human—one better start worrying, imho.
Btw, using the 'Azerty (French alt)' keyboard layout on Linux, this poor em-dash is just a Shift+AltGr+' away—why wouldn't I want to use it?
Legal disclaimer: this comment was generated by Libb, the first French English-speaking AI that's as human-looking as anything French can be. It was trained on baguettes and wine—please, say 'cheese' in the next 20 seconds, if you don't want for Libb to give you a real French kiss.
- slow clap
  
  Bowing in front of the one-person cheering crowd.
  I just realized, you did not say 'cheese'? Come closer ;)

Em dashes are hyped up, but most people aren't writing up bulleted lists themselves for a random email.
- I do bulleted lists in emails if it's called for...
  Y'all motherfuckers need to read more. Why is proper grammar suddenly a bad thing?
  
  Man ain't nobody fucking putting together a bulleted list to email their friends and family.
- i have three reasons i'd like to share about why i disagree, but now i'm self-conscious :P

Any “people” talking about simple ways to detect AI are actually AI bots trying to throw us off.
- aw, you got me! dot dot dot DASH dot dot do dot dot

No, you are not a computer.
- thank you, fellow human.

what's the deal?
01001110 01101001 01100011 01100101 00100000

This whole topic makes me realize I put disjointed thoughts in parentheses within other thoughts way too often. Maybe em dashes are literary functions for people with ADHD to write the way they think?
/s, sort of, I would say I'm ADHD, but too stubborn to seek a diagnosis.
- Yeah idk. It's one of those things I fix into proper sentence structuring when I feel like writing more formally. Otherwise there may just be random parenthesis (like this with interesting thoughts) cluttered in occasionally - sorta lazy.
- don't worry - i do a lot of the same things (well, sometimes..). it's all good - and the true beauty of language is the freedom to express it aS y0U w!sH!

Compare
—
(alt 0151)
to

(alt 45)

0
- thank you.
  1
  
  0
  
  2
- 00
  2E ?
  
  0xdeadbeef

I don't know about that, but if you use three hyphens, the Lemmy Web UI will render it as an em-dash, and you can remain human!
EDIT: Unfortunately, nobody appears to have made a Threadiverse community analogous to Reddit's /r/totallynotrobots.

there's a use for the em dash. it is mainly on reports and literature. i just don't see it on the casual internet much.
from what i read, it is the use of realm and delve that have strong leanings of ai bias.
- my suspicion regards the usage. colloquially, we use these dashes interchangeably. nobody is measuring your dash size (unless maybe the president).
  the suspicion arrives when this formatting occurs under circumstances where the autocorrect kicks in.
  or maybe i'm just on crack. i'd appreciate any thoughts.
  
  to be fair, that's some presidential level autocorrect if it thinks it knows how you should measure your dashes.
  i agree that in the internet, no one does (or at least, actively) try to measure them dash sizes.
  hmmm, any thoughts... huh these people and their cracks sure do love their long lines~

That’s why I use en dashes instead of em dashes when writing with Helvetica; it’s too long anyway.

EDIT: Actually I don't think you're a troll, I think you're looking for tips to make your AI posts harder to detect by getting people to tell you what gives it away.
And for reference: No, you're not actually using em dashes. Although you already knew that, because if you can google a binary converter, you can google "em dash".