Not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it's stealing my em dashes too • Hacker News Board

Re: Not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it's stealing my em dashes too

#11

Post by giancarlostoro » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 5:33 PM UTC

cs702 wrote: post #2

Yeah, lately I've found myself editing out my em-dashes , because otherwise people may think it's an LLM writing, not me. Sigh.

Nah, go the opposite direction — post with em dashes. Let them think you're AI, till they realize people are posting it to spite the "its AI bro" remarks.

Re: Not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it's stealing my em dashes too

#12

Post by addaon » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 5:38 PM UTC

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #9

I don't get the "em dash = AI" thing. MS Word and iOS have been autocorrecting em dashes for years now. Right? Am I the crazy one?

And option-hyphen has typed one directly for even longer… wait, is AI coming for my option-semicolon too?

Re: Not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it's stealing my em dashes too

#13

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 5:40 PM UTC

cs702 wrote: post #2

Yeah, lately I've found myself editing out my em-dashes , because otherwise people may think it's an LLM writing, not me. Sigh.

Some subreddits now force you to do this. I've been typing three hyphens as a petulant show of passive aggression.

Re: Not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it's stealing my em dashes too

#14

Post by srcreigh » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 5:41 PM UTC

This is silly. AI generated pieces will have em dashes edited out too.

My protest is to use em dashes more. Why not? They’re great. Who cares if AI also uses them.

Re: Not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it's stealing my em dashes too

#15

Post by wildpeaks » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 5:43 PM UTC

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #9

I don't get the "em dash = AI" thing. MS Word and iOS have been autocorrecting em dashes for years now. Right? Am I the crazy one?

Even using "big words" gets you mistaken for AI these days, which is especially frustrating when you have a richer vocabulary than average due to growing up reading a lot of books.

Re: Not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it's stealing my em dashes too

#16

Post by bogeholm » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 5:45 PM UTC

I suppose my writing is safe for a bit longer; I like my semicolons.

Re: Not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it's stealing my em dashes too

#17

Post by VoodooJuJu » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 5:45 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it's stealing my em dashes too

#18

Post by dfxm12 » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 5:52 PM UTC

srcreigh wrote: post #14

This is silly. AI generated pieces will have em dashes edited out too. My protest is to use em dashes more. Why not? They’re great. Who cares if AI also uses them.

Why are em dashes great?

—Fixed width font preferer

Re: Not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it's stealing my em dashes too

#19

Post by kbrkbr » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 5:53 PM UTC

srcreigh wrote: post #14

This is silly. AI generated pieces will have em dashes edited out too. My protest is to use em dashes more. Why not? They’re great. Who cares if AI also uses them.

And where are they?

Re: Not only am I losing my livelihood to AI – now it's stealing my em dashes too

#20

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 5:55 PM UTC

newscombinatorY wrote: post #4

I understand getting triggered by em dashes in a comment section - nobody uses them like that, right? But in an editorial piece? That's where you expect to see them. At least that's what I thought...

[deleted]