this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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[–] rimu@piefed.social 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Notice the heavy use of the em-dash throughout that post?

[–] codeinabox@programming.dev 6 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

There is much debate about whether the use em-dash is a reliable signal for AI generated content.

It would be more effective to compare this post with the author's posts before gen AI, and see if there has been a change in writing style.

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 3 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

I toned down mu em-dash usage because i don't want people to think it's AI :(

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 hours ago

I tuned my usage up once I realized it is universal punctuation. I used to be unfamiliar with it and agonize over which punctuation was best for a given sentence. Can't decide between a comma, semi-colon, comma clause, parenthetical, or what-not — just use an emdash and don't fucking worry about it.

I'm pretty sure I haven't been accused of being an LLM. Despite my lazy command of the emdash and comfortability with multisyllabic and archaic words, I think LLMs come across as insufferable bores and I don't think I do that — not to that degree, anyway.

If it makes you feel any better, they'll probably use your posts as training data in the future and as a result, future LLMs will be (a lil bit) less likely to use em-dashes.

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Aww you’re no fun. Stop with the nuance.

[–] codeinabox@programming.dev 1 points 8 hours ago

My nuanced reply was in response to the nuances of the parent comment. I thought we shared articles to discuss their content, not the grammar.

[–] rimu@piefed.social -2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

That is not the only sign in that blog post, just the most obvious one.

[–] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Please dish if you feel so inclined. I thought it felt very "blogger who has written a lot of blog posts" but I didn't get any AI smell.

I've known for a while that one day the day would come when I wouldn't be able to pick out the AI artifacts, and I'd join the throngs that chase the will o' wisps through the dead internet. Maybe this is it for me.

[–] rimu@piefed.social 0 points 2 hours ago

Copy and paste it into an AI detector. Especially the bit about the abstraction tower.

[–] ThomasWilliams@lemmy.world -4 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

There's no debate, no one real uses em dash. Where is the em dash key on the keyboard?

[–] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 hours ago

Compose minus minus for me. I use it frequently.

[–] codeinabox@programming.dev 3 points 8 hours ago

There are plenty of humans using em dash, how do you think large language models learnt to use them in the first place? NPR even did an episode on it called Inside the unofficial movement to save the em dash — from A.I.

It turns out that modern software supports something called "Copy and Paste" that makes it easy to insert an em-dash whenever—and wherever—you want.