this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2025
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It's the tell that someone used an LLM to write the response.
That’s absurd. I’ve long used em dashes in writing. It’s not at all a tell. Plenty of people use them.
Plenty = dozen.
Most just use n-dashes. M-dash doesn't even exist on most virtual keyboards.
A lot of software will autocorrect two hyphens into an em-dash, but it's not consistent everywhere.
This is how I've used them. Or I'll just put -- as a place holder and use the replace all function to change them when I finish. Luckily I've never had anyone accuse me of AI writing but it's probably a matter of time. I think the use of em-dash as the "telltale sign" of AI is silly. They're just more often used in research, documentation, and academics which the AI is heavily trained on. Obviously when average reddit Joe uses them frequently it's a bit of a red flag, so the context of the writing is key here. The AI uses it because it is widely and commonly used by humans.
Ok, but what is it and how is it different than a dash?
I was checking out the online reviews of my dad's gastroenterologist the other day. The reviews all contained em-dashes although it was obvious just from the content that they were AI-generated. Dude is full of shit, ironically enough.