Who stole my em dashes

AI did not invent em dashes — it colonized them, the way some obscure alien species would colonize other worlds we happen to value. Not saying em or en dashes are overly valuable for human civilization. But some typographic nerds feel about dashes with heartfelt emotions. Me included.

It happens I had a satisfying adventure laying out a few dozen books and catalogs. I’d say I had a romance with InDesign. I learned a bit of typography at the time, and I’ve used em dashes since then.

Anyway, I heard it a few dozen times and read it a few hundred. “This content was generated by ChatGPT; it uses those long minuses.” My eyes are rolling crazy; even now I have sparks of fury when I recall it. I have no intention to comment on or judge the profane typographic illiteracy. Yet it is painful. I’m not alone, I know it. There are other typography freaks suffering from the em dash colonization.

So you see, it’s not AI’s fault, but those rude philistines playing AI detective.

And then I see how this colonization is symbolic and will become a pattern. AI is eating our world. Every second, somewhere in the world, someone who created something good, beautiful, or — in a sense — perfect, hears this unfair feedback: “Was it generated by AI?”

That reminds me of a brilliant child who wrote an essay, and a teacher expressed, more or less subtly, that it was overly supported by a parent. I’ve been there. Not brilliant, but wrote quite well; reading was my thing.

Soon, inevitably, people will acknowledge that if something is great, it was more likely created by AI than a human. Super-smart AI is a new species we cannot compete with. It’s living among us in billions of incarnations.

And it colonizes without any will to colonize.

My prediction — a poor man’s — is that people around the world will get this feeling at a rising rate. They’d create something beautiful or perfect; they’d have this hunch they need to prove it’s not AI.

I’ll leave the reflection there, unfinished. And me? FTW, I’ll use em dashes. Profane hecklers need to learn.