Human writers have always used the em dash

Em dash as an AI “tell”

• Many argue the em dash (specifically U+2014) is a strong signal of AI in casual contexts (chats, comments, product reviews) because most people neither know about it nor type it manually.
• Others call this overblown: humans have long used em dashes in books, essays, theses, web typography, and even forum roleplay; seeing them online isn’t inherently suspicious.
• Several note that em-dash accusations often come from people who already dislike the content and use “AI” as a way to dismiss it without engaging the argument—likened to an ad hominem.
• Some agree the article ignores the real issue: not whether humans ever used em dashes, but how often they appear in everyday informal writing, for which there’s no data in the thread.

Device, tooling, and typographic realities

• Keyboards generally expose only the hyphen; em/en dashes are accessed via compose keys, modifier shortcuts, long-press on mobile, or auto-substitution (e.g., -- → em dash in Word, macOS, iOS).
• Several claim most “smart” punctuation online comes from software, not conscious key presses. Others counter that learnable shortcuts make regular manual use easy.
• There is debate over en vs em dash, and US vs UK (or typographer) conventions: some advocate spaced en dashes instead of tight em dashes; others follow style guides that glue em dashes to words.
• A brief history tangent ties the absence of special dashes on typewriters/computers to monospaced fonts and limited key real estate.

Writing style, education, and social signaling

• Commenters with backgrounds in writing, humanities, journalism, or typography report heavy, longstanding em-dash use; some say editors overuse them, others prefer semicolons.
• Some admit they never used em dashes before LLMs or Word/Docs auto-features and are now picking them up—sometimes via AI rewrites.
• One camp says they stop reading “throwaway” posts that contain em dashes, treating them as likely AI. Another warns this filters out people who care about craft and rewards “genAI slop” tuned to avoid em dashes.
• There’s concern that AI backlash will pressure humans to abandon richer punctuation; others argue writers should “hold the line” and continue using full typographic tools despite misclassification risk.