No—em-dashes are not a sign of AI

Which, I’ll admit, sounds like something an AI would say…

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.

Take a shot every time I use an em-dash, starting now. —Kate

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Inspired by

User Mag

’s coverage of conservative influencers moving to Nashville, this weekend’s ICYMI is about the shifting image of what a Republican even looks like:

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After male lifestyle writer and everyone’s favorite My Internet participant LindyMan (real name Paul Skallas) tweeted that frequent em-dashes were a sign something was likely written by AI, a bunch of nerds who love em-dashes lost their minds. I am one of the nerds. Every time I submit an Embedded draft for Nick to edit, I wonder if it’s going to be the time he finally tells me to cool it on the em-dashes. I love an em-dash! They’re not a period, not a colon—and they’re also not a sign of AI.

I tried to look up where this rumor first started and if anyone with any knowledge of AI was behind it. It seems to have actually surfaced around November 2024, when a user in the Open AI Developer Community forum made a post about how they couldn’t get ChatGPT to not include em-dashes and hyphens.

“Every time I make a request, I cannot stop replies including a dash or em dash. I have added it to memory, settings etc.,” they wrote. “I will even remind ChatGPT not to use it and it will agree, and then do it immediately again. Is there any way to prevent this from happening?”

But then over on Reddit, another user shared a slightly different observation.