The AI Em Dash Panic Misses the Point
How AI and human culture are already changing each other.
The latest style guide came through at my freelance writing gig: No em dash.
My brain melted.
I’ve been using the em dash my entire writing career — long before generative AI started spitting out articles. So, I did what any stubborn writer does. I emailed my editor.
“Is this based on the myth of the AI em dash?” I asked.
The answer: yes. Apparently, the em dash is now considered a dead giveaway that the text was written by AI.
Except that logic is reactionary and a dead giveaway of poor grammar skills.
A Dash Primer
The em dash is under fire not because AI loves it, but because humans have been doing punctuation wrong.
Here’s the cheat sheet:
Hyphen (-): Ties together words (well-being, two-thirds).
En dash (–): Ties together ranges (2010–2020, Paris–Berlin).
Em dash (—): Ties together phrases (Like this — see how it works?).
Most people use hyphens where em dashes are called for. As a magazine editor, I beg my writers to please please please use the proper dash!
AI didn’t create this problem. It just does grammar right — and now we’re punishing it (and ourselves) for good behavior.
AI Is Changing Grammar (But Not Like You Think)
TL;dr: Everyone was doing grammar wrong. AI shows up, does grammar correctly, and our cultural response is: double down on doing it wrong.
That isn’t resistance. It’s reactionary.
Refusing to use an em dash because “AI uses it” doesn’t protect you from anything — it just accelerates AI’s effect on culture by forcing us into weird contortions to avoid sounding like… correct grammar.
The em dash is shaping up to become the new oxford comma (fellow writers will get it).
If You Want to Resist AI, Do It For Real
Don’t boycott proper punctuation. Boycott bad behavior.
Quit products that replace humans with bots — looking at you, Duolingo.
Contact your elected officials and advocate for regulatory rails on AI.
Support independent creators and journalists who aren’t using AI to churn out SEO fodder (hello, that’s me!).
But don’t ban the em dash. That’s not resistance — that’s hiding under the table while the house burns.
Your Agency Matters
Paradigm shifts are uncomfortable. They always have been. But culture doesn’t improve the human condition when we dig in our heels in the wrong spot.
My challenge to you: take action where it counts. Don’t jump on the “AI writes em dashes” bandwagon just because it’s easy. Make a move that actually changes something — even if it’s harder.
Because culture will change whether we like it or not — but you still get a say in how.