Death of the Em Dash
by Lorriane Liu
Have you ever generated a response on ChatGPT only to notice an overabundance of em dashes? There are many telltale signs that might suggest a text was generated by artificial intelligence, from repetitive vocabulary to citations from sources that do not exist. More recently, even specific punctuation has been categorised into this identification process. In particular, the em dash has been increasingly associated with AI-generated writing. As New York Times writer Nitsuh Abee states, it stands out as a “robotic artifact that does not match modern-day communication”. Some have jokingly called this pattern a form of GBT-ism, a distinctive stylistic quirk that signals AI influence, especially in spaces where readers rely on quick cues to distinguish human-writing from machine-output.
This association is ironic. The em dash has a long literary history, appearing in the works of writers such as Emily Dickinson, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. In literature, the em dash has traditionally been used to embody the nuanced tone of human voice, as seen in Woolf's stream of consciousness technique. Its purpose is to convey a character’s subtle shifts in thoughts or sensory experiences, a tool to make written prose feel alive and vivid. However, now in an era that values short-form, immediate, digital communication, such punctuation may appear excessive. As we are now dominated by instantaneous posts and quick texts, speed and simplicity now appear to be the priority.
The “death” of the em dash, then, is less about the punctuation mark itself and more about our society’s shifting norms of communication. As AI becomes more fluent in formal and literary styles, the boundaries between human and machine writing grow increasingly blurred. In response, readers rely on superficial cues, such as punctuation, rather than substance to judge whether a text is human-written or machine-generated. In other words, the expressive function of the em dash is being overshadowed by a culture of surface-level assessment. Once an emblem of individuality and nuance, the em dash has become a symbol of both the changing nature of writing and the challenges of recognizing genuine human voice in the age of AI.
