Why the fuck does AI love this symbol so much?

I use it all the time—I like its versatility.

I have a bunch of friends who work in software engineering. Apparently their Indian coworkers use it in every single email.

>>510058508 (OP)
Because it's a great punctuation mark—try it for yourself sometime, OP!

>>510058508 (OP)
It's a nigger hand clap

Before AI came around it was a surefire way to know you were speaking to a smart person. However it was usually written -- like this, that is two hyphens. In blogs and shit like that the auto-formatting even back in 2014 would act like Office does and switch it to an em dash for you. Reddit started doing it around 2016 iirc.

Basically the thing is fed a demonic amount of Tumblr, that's why it does it.

>>510058749
The indians are the AI anon.

>>510058996
>Basically the thing is fed a demonic amount of Tumblr, that's why it does it.
Came to say this. AI is getting disproportional amounts of long windy gay blog posts and such and copies the stylistic choices made in those

Because it's the most token efficient way to separate clauses and "-" is technically not the correct symbol

>>510058508 (OP)
That's what a comma is for. Presumably, in context this sentence would contain other information about the sister relative to her move and not speaking the language.

>>510058508 (OP)
AI is supposed to watermark its content so training pipelines know the content is AI. Emdash does that well because it's not a key on any typical keyboard.

>>510058996
It makes you sound smarter and more faggy at the same time—I use it a lot in "mission critical" emails to my stakeholders

>>510058508 (OP)
Em dash is heavily used in published books edited by professional editors. LLMs were trained on pirated books. That's why.

whats the difference between this and a comma t. zoomermutt who got straight Ds in HS

>>510058508 (OP)
All you need is either , or ; depending a couple of things. I absolutely do not tolerate ...

>>510058749
Yeah cause they can't speak English so might as well use AI
>>510058996
100%

American nonfiction writers love it, a lot of AI training material is from books and magazines and the fact of having being through a publishing process caused it to be ranked higher on the quality scale during training. Pick up any isse of the New Yorker or any book on politics from the last 40 years, they're all over the place.

>>510058749
It breaks up the provision of information without requiring eloquence. Like greentexts

>>510058508 (OP)
because it's fucking correct to use. i used it for years and now everyone thinks my emails are fucking ai generated bullshit, fml

>>510058508 (OP)
>using valid grammer is unnatural

>>510058508 (OP)
Because that's the proper punctuation and use of it. People are lazy niggers and never use it.
>>510060792
See >>510059757
It's proper English and that's why it's used.

>>510058508 (OP)
it's pretty common in a lot of literature and it's training corpus is mostly made up of books. asking this question is how you prove you're a brainlet. read a book, nigger

>>510061329
>it's
embarrassing

>>510058508 (OP)

DA DASH DUNT BE SILENT!

>>510061160
Are are commas, parentheses, semicolons. I have nothing against the em-dash, I just mean Americans have a particular fondness for it.

But that's not all.

When Americans really want to emphasize something they put it on its own line. MY theory about this style of writing (which is very obvious to anyone who is not American or reads widely) is that it's influenced by TV. Take any sort of midwit American nonfiction writing and read it aloud, it has the same sort of cadences as TV narration. It's not good or bad, it's just the prevailing style.

>>510058508 (OP)
It's not just excessive—it's obnoxious!

>>510058508 (OP)
never heard of them till recently (I use parenthesis).

>>510061760
Honestly, it's because of the Internet.

>>510058508 (OP)
AHEM DASH

PURE R*DDIT

>>510058508 (OP)
Idk, I tend to use, the punctuation mark, 'comma(,)' for than; the way I was taught.

>>510061760
You're a dumb nigger. It's proper English which is why you see it. It's in style guides. Not just American English style guides but the king's English guides.
> T work in book publishing

>>510061939
I'm 55 and I think this style of writing predates mass internet usage. but that has certainly pushed writing toward the lowest common denominator.

Listen up, because I’m about to drop some truth bombs on this whole “only AI uses em dashes” nonsense. First off, em dashes are not some AI-exclusive secret code. They’re a powerful punctuation tool humans have been wielding for decades to add style, emphasis, or dramatic pauses in writing. Em dashes aren’t just some sterile, mechanical symbol—it’s the equivalent of a writer’s mic drop, a way to punch a sentence with flair, clarity, or sarcasm. Anyone who says only AI uses em dashes clearly hasn’t been paying attention to literature, journalism, or even casual writing online. Real authors, editors, and wordsmiths use em dashes to break up thoughts, insert explanations, or show abrupt changes in tone. They make writing dynamic and engaging. To say they’re AI-exclusive is not only ignorant, it’s dismissive of centuries of written language evolution. Em dashes are way more versatile than commas, parentheses, or colons. They carry weight. They guide the reader’s rhythm. When you want to be clear but punchy, nothing beats the em dash. People who sneer at em dashes just don’t get how punctuation shapes meaning and tone. If anything, it’s humans who have historically overused or misused dashes, and AI—when properly programmed—can be more precise with them. So stop acting like em dashes are a glitchy AI quirk or some sign that a bot wrote your text. They’re a staple of human expression, a literary tool to make writing pop. And let’s be real: if you think em dashes are “only AI,” you’re just stuck in a puny little box of ignorance, refusing to appreciate the nuances of language. Em dashes belong to everyone who loves to write with style, punch, and clarity—not just the silicon brains running algorithms. Get with the program.

>>510058508 (OP)
its just slop. But MS Word will also auto "correct" the more usual '-' into an em dash, so its not exactly new. just no one ever uses the "right" character since it isn't easily typed on a normal keyboard.

>>510062217

>>510058996

I always FUCKING hated when Word would turn my -- into —

>>510058508 (OP)
I like using it too. I used it way before it took off with AI.

>>510062160
Nobody said it's not proper english retard, just that Americans like it more than other anglophone countries' writers, much as British people like semicolons and oxford commas. If you can't notice the stylistic difference between British and American longform writing then you are smoothbrained.

>>510061369
"it's" is the grammatically correct contraction of "it is"

>>510062217
this is AI

>>510061819
THIS GUY GETS IT

DEATH TO EMDASHERS

>>510058508 (OP)
Why have I never seen this punctuation mark until now, or taught about it in school?

>>510062333
Now when you use it people will think that you're slacking off by using AI.

>>510062217
@grok is this true?

So recruiters can reject my cover letter — written by chatgpt

>>510062217
No one fucking uses the em dash when writing a anon post on 4chan because it requires MORE work to either remember the code for the character, or copy paste that shit from a document editing program of your choice. That is why the use of the "-" vs. "—" is a clear indicator that a post is AI slop versus a real typed out response. I literally had to copy-paste that em dash to get it in my post because I sure as fuck can't be bothered to remember it's code.

>>510058508 (OP)
It cant do ellipses

>>510062539
Word automatically makes it for you. You enter - and it fixes it for you if you have spaces around it. No need to teach it. Sort of like no one really taught us the @ symbol or #. It just entered the lexicon naturally with the internet.

>>510058996
>>510059202
>>510059694
>Certainly! Here are the key takeaways:
Basically everyone wants to read effeminate writing from a chatbot. Men love women. Women love women, when they aren't savagely destroying each other.
Men want to interact with a bubbly pleasant female voice. Women want to feel le safe or some shit.
That's how you get this shit

>>510062955
>Basically everyone wants to read effeminate writing from a chatbot
ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING

WE NEED TO KILL SKYNET BEFORE ITS TOO LATE

>>510058508 (OP)
Why the fuck is everybody so MAD about it? It's been used since forever.

>>510058508 (OP)
does anyone else have the problem that you can't search within manpages because this shit is sprinkled all over them, or did I just compile something wrong?

>>510063075
It isn't the ai navigator that is the issue. It is pulling information from the internet itself.

>>510058508 (OP)
it's copying what I like -- I use it often, except I use it incorrectly whilst phonefagging

>>510063088
you should pipe your man page into grep or something

i.e, man cat | word

>>510063449
fuck i'm drunk
man cat | grep word

>>510058749
it's not even a character on the keyboard they're just using scatPJT to filter every message they send

Zoomers can't use ;

>>510063567
Man, I'm 26. I mastered in English. I teach high school English. I know how to use the semicolon; in addition, I'm a zoomer.

>>510062375
try again little bro

>>510058508 (OP)
Why are we outsourcing the comma or parenthesis? These methods of sorting have worked perfectly well for centuries.

>>510062758
Most smartphone keyboards let you enter it by holding down on the hyphen key (-).

>>510063618
BTW, my reading curriculum for 10th:
>The Odyssey
>Illiad
>Romeo and Juliet
>JRR Tolkien
>Modern Fiction: Under the Dome
>Gargantua and Pantagruel

Gen alpha will not be indoctrinated by jewish slop. Admin can suck my dick. If they want to tell me I can't teach "old white people" I'll walk the fuck out.

>>510063449
if I have to do anything extra, I'd rather just doctor the mans to not have any of this shit
but my point here is, why even is it this way? just for extra suffering? the don't even look any different, at least with the font I'm using. just unsearchable for no reason at all

>>510064046
how the fuck do you usually search your man pages? by default it's set to be piped into `less` so you should probably read man man ironically to get a grasp on how to configure it. grok or gemini can be of assistance here. as far as i know there's no compiler flag to disable the use of em dashes, they are an old school unix tradition

>>510058508 (OP)
—

>>510058996
The old ways are dying
>double space after period

>>510064131
>how the fuck do you usually search your man pages?
I press le / and type shit then press enter
is there a way to make it not differentiate dash from em dash?

>>510061160
>>510059757
Ask why you never see a semicolon then; You are not as smart as you think.

Ah! Great question. Let’s break it down clearly and simply.

When you see the “—” mark (called an em dash in English), it’s used by AI (and often by human writers too) to do a few things:

-Add emphasis or create a pause
-Insert additional information
-Visually break up text

When AI writes, it tries to sound friendly and easy to read. The em dash helps make long sentences feel less heavy and easier to follow.

Why AI uses it so much:

AI is trained on a lot of modern writing, which often uses em dashes for conversational, blog-like, or casual writing styles. So it tends to adopt that “approachable” tone unless you specifically tell it not to.

>>510058996
>surefire way to know you were speaking to a smart person
I always thought I was speaking to a dumb person who didn't understand the other forms of punctuation.

Use en and em a lot.

>t. not a retard. Don't like donkey dick (pic related).

>>510064695
I'll never stop. Turns out taking typing and word-processing at school in the 90s for a laugh was actually a good idea.
I don't know anyone else who does it though. Fucking lowbrow niggers..

>>510058508 (OP)
because it is used in subtitles which are a massive source of text information that the AI was trained on.
they could easily filter it out, but they like having subtle "AI generated" markers in the output because it helps prevent training data contamination.

>>510058508 (OP)
I started using it — really makes my sentences pop!

One of tehse dashes is not like the other. Can YOU spot it?
— — — — — — — — - — —

>>510061819
Whatever la—ah...

>>510058996
This. Also linkedin. A lot of 'style guides' (basically how to fake sounding academic for pseuds) shill the em dash so linkedin is just absolutely fucking inundated with it, and linkedin became one of the primary text dumps that formed AI training data.

This is also why, as >>510064796 mentions, you don't see AIs ever, ever using a semicolon correctly. An em dash is easy because its proper use is vague and flexible, but a semicolon has strict rules and misusing it makes you look like a pseud. The ESLs that shit up linkedin love the em dash but fear the semicolon; so too does chatgpt.

>>510063554
Outlook applies it automatically.

>>510065343
NOW YOU CAN PASS FOR AN ESL THIRD WORLDER

>>510062217
>They’re a powerful punctuation tool humans have been wielding for decades
>for decades

>>510058508 (OP)

I hate these fucking things. There is no use case for them where a pair of commas wouldn’t be more elegant and sensible.

>>510065585
Still AI.

>>510063554
Funny enough it's really easy to do on my phone —

most punctuation is completely pointless and anyone can parse english just fine without it its a waste of bandwidth at this point its just a way too show off how smart you are in the future it wont exist

>>510066617
No, fucker. Punctuation allows the reader to better comprehend your point. Punctuation keeps your sentences from being ambiguous, and it also guides the reader through the text. By using proper pronunciation and grammer, the reading is a much more relaxing and clear experience.

>>510066617
Unironically - because I hate you - kys.

>>510067176
K.Y.S. I meant.

>>510062955
>Men love women. Women love women
Btw it's called the "women are wonderful effect".

>>510065517
Idk how the semicolon is used in English so I almost never use it though I use it a lot in German since I know the rules there and it's very usefull.

>>510058508 (OP)
The funny thing is that even if you ask them to not use it, they will still use it sooner or later.

>>510058508 (OP)
Because it's in a lot of fiction that models are trained on.

because people just cant write properly anymore.... they just keep overusing em dash.... just.... it's like an easy way to just.... throw random thoughts into a post.... and stop worrying about cohesion and sentence structure...

>>510067717
I can hear the vocal fry in my brain

>>510067717
I didn't know it was possible for one to become retarded simply by being frustrated enough.

>>510058508 (OP)
I prefer semicolon.
I don't trust anyone on uses or and or but in a sentence

>>510068200
Stick to Hindi.

>>510058508 (OP)
why editors love this shit so much?
If God wants people to use it, it would be on the standard keyboard layout!

>>510068290
I know Hindi and 4 other Indian languages. Stick, I'll just shove it up your ass you intellectually starved mutilate mutt monkey

>>510058564
Is that what a coma or semicolon is for?

>>510058508 (OP)
All-you-can-eat

>>510058508 (OP)
Does not you like punctuation, sir?
I would recommend you Ulysses
And go eat shit btw

>>510058508 (OP)
Academics use faggy punctuation.
AIs train on academic resources, many of which are available for free online.
AIs learn to use faggy punctuation from academics.
But don't worry, anon–I have a plan!
1. We infiltrate all levels of academia in the West
2. Once we've secured our position, we start replacing the em dash with what I like to call "the n dash". Instead of – you write: ",nigger,".
3. AIs train on our new body of work and start dropping n bombs everywhere.
Thoughts?

>i was le using it before it was le cool
lol sure thing
it’s a dead giveaway now, get with the times
my company is filtering this specific character to weed out the no effort AI applications

>>510058996
I love how retards here gobbled this post up, when the reality is that it's used in most news articles to avoid using parenthesis so much.
Tumblr has barely any effect on the AI retard.

>>510058508 (OP)
Its mere usage — which is overlooked by keyboard-poor Windowsfags — conveys a degree of sophistication which NPCs are only accustomed to seeing in professional writing and commercial publications.

It’s a cool punctuation mark. But it’s redundant: either commas or semi colons fulfil its function.

>>510058508 (OP)
it completes the θ Φ
circle cross

>>510068476
knowing more languages is a red flag for being a retard
you probably dont even have a comprehensive vocabulary in one

>>510069532
>conveys a degree of sophistication
yes

Midwits use "-" in everything. They can't into English or grammas.
Real punca-chads use real English

>>510058508 (OP)
Because various writing formats consider it standard. I got docked on a grad school assignment because I didn't use them

>>510062217
--snap, this is going into my cringe complain--

>>510069742
--COMPILATION-- I MEAN

>>510069717
What the fuck
Explain why the writing systems consider them necessary?
That seems incorrect to me

>>510069693
Commas or parentheses are more appropriate

it's how jeets write irl

>>510058508 (OP)
isn't that just a comma? Like you would write it as
>My sister, who doesn't speak French, is moving to France.
You could also use () but like that's most for a digression away from the thought

>>510058508 (OP)
It's the ESL equivalent to the comma.

>>510058508 (OP)
Because it makes punctuation easier; it might not be 100% correct but it'll get the job done.

>>510058508 (OP)
Heh, I hear ya, bucko! AI — especially LLM chat interfaces — can sometimes come across as insincere. I fucking love the truth. What do you think? Wanna fuck?

>>510058996
Is this like a homosexual thing? I've always just used a bunch of commas

>>510060316
no clue, looks like fag shit. I use ,, when it's related to the main idea of the sentences and () when it's a digression

>>510058508 (OP)
my cock --- which is up your ass ---- has a load of SHIT all over it.
Now--- since I'm parasite-ridden--- seems like a time to go frequent a FAG parade.

>>510060972
just use commas, faggot

>>510058896
fuck you.

>>510058508 (OP)
because it was trained on old-ass books that used them -- a lot.

>>510065210
>not a retard
>no adblock
>that fucking screen shot

>>510065517
>>510067468
you use semicolons in place of the word "but"
>I told the anon, em dashes were for faggots; he was too busy sucking cocks.
or if you have a list, but you need to use commas inside the list for other shit. Like New York, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France.
usually you just use butt so semi colons are only really good if you need to write a list with commas in it

>>510068476
>>510068200
god you sound like a retarded street shitter

>>510058508 (OP)
em dash is for loser–real winners know the en dash

>>510058996
>Basically the thing is fed a demonic amount of Tumblr, that's why it does it.
I was suspecting something like that. Chatgpt does read a lot like that.
>let's unpack x
Also, different slop by default reads different. Chatgpt and deepseek have distinctive flavours.

>>510069824
because they're arbitrary and meant to gatekeep plebs or something

This has been debunked—

>>510058508 (OP)
it saves heaps of space and i fucken loved it too but have to reconsider it's application now AI here. The major reason not used by humans much is because it's never shortcutted well. when was pro writing in ms word would typically hit on keyboard, i think, space then type "and" then MS word would autocorrect an emdash before the and, so then delete the "and", with a 40wpm typing speed that was fastest way.

>>510058996
double hyphens are for homosexuals who don't know how to use advanced symbols or don't have a numpad, i've had the command for — memorized since i was 11

>>510058508 (OP)
probably they put it on purpose so AI text is easier to spot, just like phone keyboards have some characters altered like 5 pointed star instead of 6 pointed

>>510058996
I have never seen the em dash used; semicolons are how you would properly structure a compound sentence.

>>510059241
It would be a semicolon
;

>>510062865
What's the purpose of correcting a hyphen to a m dash if they are functionally identical?

>>510058508 (OP)
And emoticons

>>510058508 (OP)
because people love it so much. duh. you still don't understand how models are trained?

>>510070045
Hello, fellow straight man.

>>510058508 (OP)
kek I just noticed that while experimenting with AI text-to-IQ estimator
it kept adding one IQ point per em dash, up to a certain point, even if I added them in nonsensical places
em dash = high IQ apparently

>>510058508 (OP)
Aren't commas meant to be used like that? Or is english different?

>>510058564
you're—a faggot

>>510077418
you–re a faggot

>>510064695
>The old ways are dying. <---- .
There, I fixed it for you. I am concerned about the health of the full stop and so should you be.

>>510058508 (OP)
>Grammar & punctuation
Important but very secondary, I'm not saying this is true of everyone but most people use it as a crutch because they've no interesting thoughts or creativity. The biggest legalists - who'll seethe at me doing this - in my experience are people whose writing is akin to a Potemkin village. On the surface it's structurally excellent but behind the front facing structural facade is totally hollow.

As for A.I, it has no sovl so it's doing the exact same thing I'm describing above to compensate.