I’ve been testing ChatGPT because it launched in November 2022 and have seen updates enhance its writing capabilities. Nonetheless, pretty just lately, I seen a sample in ChatGPT’s output — the repeated use of the em sprint.
Whereas the em sprint is a punctuation mark liked by many writers, akin to myself, as seen within the sentence above, it additionally appears to be ChatGPT’s favourite. Whereas the em sprint, additionally known as a hyphen, is a complicated approach so as to add a pause, break, or an apart right into a sentence, it could be price switching to the comma, or you could begin elevating suspicions that you simply depend on AI.
The em sprint downside
Do not imagine me? As soon as I began noticing this sample, I seemed it up, and it is not simply me noticing it. There are Reddit threads, OpenAI Developer Group discussions, and even numerous articles devoted to what’s known as the “ChatGPT Hyphen”.
As I said earlier, em sprint aficionados are in every single place, wedded to their favourite punctuation mark, so I ran an experiment to check my observations.
I requested ChatGPT to jot down me a fast conversational abstract explaining what ChatGPT is and to outline some use instances. Within the first sentence, the em sprint made an look:
ChatGPT is principally an AI that you could speak to — form of like having an excellent useful writing buddy on name 24/7. It is educated to grasp all types of questions and prompts, and it may generate textual content that sounds fairly pure and human. You should use it for tons of writing duties: issues like drafting emails, writing weblog posts, developing with social media captions, brainstorming concepts, and even serving to edit and polish what you’ve got already written. It is also nice for artistic initiatives like tales or poems, and it may clarify difficult ideas in a extremely easy-to-understand approach. Mainly, if it includes phrases, ChatGPT can most likely assist!
I then requested ChatGPT to inform me about New York in the summertime, and the em sprint was sprinkled via its output:
Completely! New York Metropolis in the summertime is vibrant, energetic, and full of issues to do — but in addition sizzling, busy, and generally a bit overwhelming.
What to anticipate:
- Climate: It is often sizzling and humid, with temps within the excessive 70s to 90s °F (25–35°C). Thunderstorms can pop up often.
- Vibe: Town comes alive. Parks are full, avenue performers are out, rooftop bars are buzzing, and occasions are taking place in every single place.
- Crowds: Vacationers flood in, so anticipate longer strains at main points of interest just like the Statue of Liberty, museums, and Broadway reveals.
- Inexperienced areas: Central Park, Prospect Park, and the Excessive Line are nice spots to chill down a bit, have a picnic, or catch a free live performance or film evening.
- Cultural occasions: SummerStage, Shakespeare within the Park, and out of doors movie festivals are large hits.
- Meals: It is prime time for meals vans, avenue festivals, and out of doors eating — from stylish spots in Brooklyn to basic pizza joints.
- Seashores and escapes: You’ll be able to hop a subway to Coney Island or take a fast prepare to seashores like Rockaway or Lengthy Seaside for a breather.
It is a mixture of grit and magic — chaotic however unforgettable. Are you considering of visiting or simply curious?
As I continued my testing, many outputs didn’t embrace em dashes, particularly shorter solutions. Nonetheless, typically talking, em dashes should not generally utilized in on a regular basis language, and, because of this, ChatGPT’s fixed gravitation in direction of them has made it virtually a signature of its textual content.
The answer
Fortunately, there’s a tremendous helpful trick to retaining your textual content em dash-free. You’ll be able to ask ChatGPT on the finish of your preliminary immediate to not use em dashes, or, after the AI generates its response, you possibly can inform it to take away em dashes. Since ChatGPT is mostly fairly good at following directions, the adjustments will occur instantly when you ask.
And when you occur to love utilizing em dashes in your writing, achieve this at your personal danger.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET’s father or mother firm, filed an April 2025 lawsuit towards OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI programs.)
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