[msephton]

My point is just: if a test for what a symbol ‘really means’ depends on choosing an audience that conveniently erases everyone who uses it differently, that’s not describing intrinsic meaning, that’s describing the author’s cultural bubble and bias.

And on em dashes—most people outside tech circles see no “AI fingerprint,” and designers like myself have loved them since early Mac DTP, so the suspicion feels hilariously retroactive and very knee-jerk. So what if somebody thinks my text here is written by a bot?

[AlecSchueler]

> So what if somebody thinks my text here is written by a bot?

Then they might not read it at all. I often zone out as soon as I expect I'm reading slop and that's the reason try to ensure my own writing isn't slop adjacent.

I'm also not sure there is an "AI bubble." Everyone I know is using it in every industry. Museum education, municipal health services, vehicle engineering, publishing, logistics, I'm seeing it everywhere.

As mentioned elsewhere I've seen non-tech people refer to them as "AI dashes."

> if a test for what a symbol ‘really means’

There was no suggestion of such a test. No symbol has an intrinsic meaning. The point GP was about considering how your output will be received.

That point was very obviously made within a specific cultural context, at the very least limited to the world of the Latin alphabet. I'm sure there are other LLM signifiers outside of that bubble.

[manuelmoreale]

> I often zone out as soon as I expect I'm reading slop and that's the reason try to ensure my own writing isn't slop adjacent.

And how is this a problem someone else has to address? Some people zone out when they see a text is too long: are we supposed to only publish short form then? I have 10 years of writing on my site, if someone in 2026 sees my use of em dashes and suddenly starts thinking that my content is AI generated that's their problem, not mine.

Too many people are willingly bending to adapt to what AI companies are doing. I'm personally not gonna do it. Because again, now it's em dashes, tomorrow it could be a set of words, or a way to structure text. I say fuck that.

[AlecSchueler]

> And how is this a problem someone else has to address?

Where has anyone made the claim that it is?

> Some people zone out when they see a text is too long: are we supposed to only publish short form then?

No, but a good writer will generally consider if their text is needlessly verbose and try to make it palatable to their audience.

> starts thinking that my content is AI generated that's their problem, not mine.

If you want to reach them with your writing then it might become a problem. Obviously the focus on em dashes alone isn't enough but it's undoubtedly one of the flags.

> Too many people are willingly bending to adapt to what AI companies are doing.

It's bending rather to what readers are feeling. It's not following the top down orders of a corporation, it's being aware of how technology shapes readers' expectations and adapting your writing to that.