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I feel so ambivalent about this joke that I'm actually paralyzed

A hyphen, a en dash and an em dash walk into a space bar ...

If you already believed that em dashes were a magical tell that something was written with AI, why would you need software to tell you that? Is this product specifically being marketed to people who don't understand how AI works and ALSO have a rare form of debilitating em-dash blindness???

Take that, literate child!

Saaaaaaame

Keep using the symbol. Your writing doesn't look like AI. AI writing looks like your writing. Don't allow the fash tech to change how you write.

Heaven forbid a kid is advanced and uses a little flair in their writing.

Chicago spotted

I realize this is not the main point, but if you want to "catch" a student using an em dash and doing so with a quick visual skim isn't effortless for you, you can ctrl+F for an em dash. Instant results, no hallucinations.

I grew up reading classic/Victorian literature that is Public Domain. I wrote with an EM-dash because it was in the first literature I was exposed to (Along with Michael Crichton, but I digress). I was the AI all along.

their ads have been anti-ai (ai text uses em dashes way too often) because they realize more people hate ai than not

I guarantee they're using AI to "scan" for AI generated text too. Everything in the world is turning into AI shite.

Ok, but I might actually want an iPod shuffle? I had one, once upon a time, and I loaned it to a friend who never gave it back (I hope you're still enjoying it, Alyson)

Fifth graders don't know print industry terms 🤷🏻

"AI-detection" is such a scam

Isn't this a company that sells used electronics?

I think the implication is not meant to be "we'll find the em dashes so you don't have to look yourself," but rather that you wouldn't typically see a 5th grader using an em dash in their writing, which is mostly true, while LLMs use them constantly. It's supposed to be a commentary, not an offer.

By holding down “-“ on their iPhone?

read what I posted again

I do, but back before I did I would copy and paste it. I think 5th graders know about copy and paste at least

it's very simple, i use alt+0151 numerous times every single day. people won't learn about these things unless they're allowed to and educated about how to use them, also.

--

Microsoft Word will insert an em dash with no alt code required.

No, they don't. They think 5th graders barely know how to read, and spend all their time on TikTok.

Oh no, a smart kid. Quick, get 'em!

I largely think this is true and know that it's a tough time to be a teacher. My point is not to minimize the friction caused by AI. Namely a teacher should never feel glee or relief when they dismiss the work of a student.

My phone keyboard isn’t even physical — thanks for pointing put the obvious. my point remains that the substitution can require no additional software installation or config to trigger the behavior. On iOS the only way to shut off the replacement is to turn off all smart punctuation logic OS-wide.

I used dashes a lot in my writing - word autocorrects them to em-dashes. I've had to change my style and uses more brackets, commas as parentheses as people have told me it makes it look the AI 😡

Most people don’t even know what an em dash is…

What, by bending it into a hook?

What?!

It's pretty clear the ad has gone over the heads of a lot of people. While it clearly is not about 'catching a 5th grader', a lot of people are taking it very literally.

Or catch a kid with an interest in typography because they want to be a graphic designer and fuck you, you fucking fucks

Or use it as a very common red flag for AI submissions and quickly check the edit history of the document.

it's been on iphone keyboards forever, the violence of this hype cycle against proper typography opening a new annex of hell

I for sure used an em dash in fifth grade in the 20th century

Is the implication here that 5th grade pupils shouldn't be using em dashes because they haven't been taught them yet, but are also doing homework of such high importance that teachers need to check if they have used AI to write it?

Is there a reward?

I'm old. A dash is a dash is a dash to me, and I've used them since I first learned to write. Heck, you could've heard them in my speech, I used 'em so much! If you could've figured out which flavor I was using when I was writing all my essays in cursive back in elementary school, then good on ya.

Fuck these people with *all* the dashes.

Back market is sick as hell. You get all kinds of kinky phones without having to haggle in Spanish.

I’ve been AI since 1993(?!) when my fifth grade teacher told me to lay off the dashes because it was getting ridiculous.

let me guess... use the AI to spot the AI

Weird lie

Or pretty much any other word processor, app, or text field.

My son was accused of plagiarism in high school for the same reason. His writing had been years ahead of grade level since early elementary school.

One of the worst things about AI is that we don’t have the epistemological framework to evaluate and assess the products it generates. We need to really think about what we know and how we can be confident we know it. We can’t rely on shortcuts anymore.