Most people aren’t taking the time to type in ctrl+shift+u+2+0+1+4 when a regular minus-dash would get the point across with a single keystroke. But there is enough of a distinction that some people (like you and I) will use the proper punctuation when there is an opportunity to do so.

What I find far more suspicious is the unicode hyphen, because no human would be able to tell the difference, and would therefore always choose to input a minus.

I must be an AI, then—does that mean I should charge for a subscription when I answer a question; maybe adding an extra premium fee on top of that sub each I’m also using a semi-column in the same sentence?

I have no idea how representative these stupid remarks you mentioned are to be considered but it’s interesting to realize how their own ignorance of a certain know-how/knowledge is so, so easily becoming a proof for them that the use of said tool/knowledge by other people is making those people suspicious.

In a working society, when faced with something one doesn’t know, aka faced with one’s own ignorance, one would see that as an opportunity to learn something new and become less ignorant. Not anymore. Following their own ‘reasoning’, it’s now being used as a proof that the other person must be some bot/AI, that they must be something non-human and suspicious. Difference is not considered an opportunity to enrich oneself anymore, it’s an anomaly.

When dumb starts defining what’s ‘normal’—and what’s human—one better start worrying, imho.

Btw, using the ‘Azerty (French alt)’ keyboard layout on Linux, this poor em-dash is just a Shift+AltGr+’ away—why wouldn’t I want to use it?

Legal disclaimer: this comment was generated by Libb, the first French English-speaking AI that’s as human-looking as anything French can be. It was trained on baguettes and wine—please, say ‘cheese’ in the next 20 seconds, if you don’t want for Libb to give you a real French kiss.

The whole em dash argument is bullshit propagated by LinkedIn lunatics with zero knowledge of AI, writing or typography.

Different types of dashes/hyphens have different uses. People who take care of their copy and understand the nuances of punctuation use em dashes regularly. People who are in a rush, typing on phones or simply who don’t know any better, put the same en dash everywhere.

Em dashes is one of the things that LLMs actually do right for a change. Calling text with em dashes weird, unnatural or ai generated is like making fun of someone for using proper grammar or hygiene.