ai – Shady Characters

The dash for AI

August 29, 2025

There is a new AI controversy in town: chatbots are ruining the em dash.

Over the past year or so, a number of people have decided that texts created by generative AI applications contain more em dashes than might otherwise be expected. The complainants come from LinkedIn,1 Reddit,2 Instagram,3 and beyond. There’s even a thread on a forum operated by OpenAI itself,4 the company which owns ChatGPT, whose participants bemoans the bot’s excessive and apparently unstoppable use of em dashes.

Bombs, books and generative AI: a blunt and obvious parable

November 9, 2024

I know, I know; these days, everyone and their five-legged, three-eyed dog is writing a piece about AI. I can’t promise that this one will be more insightful or educational than any of the others, but I can promise that it will invoke humanity’s undimmable hubris, the atomic bomb, mad cow disease, and, to keep us on brand, books.