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An em dash surrounded by spaces on either side tells you it was AI. AI: This is how we think about these things — because they're important to think about — wh
by rglover 18d ago
An em dash surrounded by spaces on either side tells you it was AI.
AI: This is how we think about these things — because they're important to think about — when we want to accomplish a task.
More likely human: This is how we think about these things—because they're important to think about—when we want to accomplish a task.
Not bulletproof for obvious reasons but it's easy to spot who was at least lazy with AI using this heuristic.
- GrinningFool 18d agoI mean, no. When I em-dash -- or double-hyphen -- I always surround it with spaces; seems wrong not to.
- runarberg 18d agoThe most telling sign is when they don’t make sense — for example right here. A human puts em dashes to emphasize the break in thought or rhythm. Where there is already a break in thought or rhythm a human would just write a comma or nothing. Another tell is what is inside the em dash. It often doesn’t logically follow – like an ad on a radio show.
- deleted 18d ago[deleted]
- latexr 18d agoSpaces around em-dashes are a convention which changes depending on the style guide.
- rglover 18d agoThey are but combined with other AI tropes (It's not this. It's that.), it may as well be a fingerprint.
- snickerer 18d agoNo, this is American style (long dash without spaces—like this) vs. European style (middle dash with spaces – like this). I don't think it is useful to detect AI writing. I told my AI not to use em dashes.