Hey AI — hands off my em-dash

[firecat]

My fave is the semicolon; however, I refuse to cede em-dashes or any other punctuation marks to ChatGPT.

These attacks on the em dash — a ChatGPT hyphen? How very dare you! — have in turn blazed across social media spaces populated by the kind of folks who will tell you, unprompted, that they have a favorite punctuation mark and what it is. (It is very likely the em dash.) — https://www.salon.com/2025/06/11/ai-cant-have-my-em-dash/

Comments

[starwatcher]

I'm very fond of semicolons, too, but I wouldn't want to write with using an occasional m-dash. Punctuation was devised to give flavor to cold words on a page. I wouldn't give up any punctuation mark -- not even parentheses, which are my least favorite. I'm flummoxed that a certain section of the hive-mind thinks using an m-dash is a sign of AI, and therefore "unhuman." It's ridiculous what people will glom onto.