I’ve been testing ChatGPT because it launched in November 2022 and have seen updates enhance its writing capabilities. Nevertheless, pretty not too long ago, I seen a sample in ChatGPT's output — the repeated use of the em sprint.
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Whereas the em sprint is a punctuation mark liked by many writers, comparable 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 means so as to add a pause, break, or an apart right into a sentence, it might be value switching to the comma, or chances are you’ll begin elevating suspicions that you just depend on AI.
The em sprint drawback
Don't consider me? As soon as I began noticing this sample, I regarded it up, and it's not simply me noticing it. There are Reddit threads, OpenAI Developer Neighborhood discussions, and even varied articles devoted to what’s known as the "ChatGPT Hyphen".
As I acknowledged earlier, em sprint aficionados are in every single place, wedded to their favourite punctuation mark, so I ran an experiment to check my observations.
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I requested ChatGPT to write down me a fast conversational abstract explaining what ChatGPT is and to outline some use circumstances. Within the first sentence, the em sprint made an look:
ChatGPT is principally an AI you can speak to — type of like having a brilliant useful writing buddy on name 24/7. It's skilled to know every kind of questions and prompts, and it may well generate textual content that sounds fairly pure and human. You need to use it for tons of writing duties: issues like drafting emails, writing weblog posts, arising with social media captions, brainstorming concepts, and even serving to edit and polish what you've already written. It's additionally nice for artistic initiatives like tales or poems, and it may well clarify difficult ideas in a extremely easy-to-understand means. Principally, if it entails phrases, ChatGPT can in all probability assist!
I then requested ChatGPT to inform me about New York in the summertime, and the em sprint was sprinkled by means of its output:
Completely! New York Metropolis in the summertime is vibrant, energetic, and filled with issues to do — but additionally scorching, busy, and typically a bit overwhelming.
What to anticipate:
- Climate: It's normally scorching and humid, with temps within the excessive 70s to 90s °F (25–35°C). Thunderstorms can pop up often.
- Vibe: The town comes alive. Parks are full, avenue performers are out, rooftop bars are buzzing, and occasions are occurring in every single place.
- Crowds: Vacationers flood in, so count on longer strains at main sights just like the Statue of Liberty, museums, and Broadway exhibits.
- 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's prime time for meals vans, avenue gala’s, and out of doors eating — from stylish spots in Brooklyn to basic pizza joints.
- Seashores and escapes: You may hop a subway to Coney Island or take a fast prepare to seashores like Rockaway or Lengthy Seashore for a breather.
It's a mixture of grit and magic — chaotic however unforgettable. Are you pondering of visiting or simply curious?
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As I continued my testing, many outputs didn’t embody em dashes, particularly shorter solutions. Nevertheless, typically talking, em dashes are usually 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 may ask ChatGPT on the finish of your preliminary immediate to not use em dashes, or, after the AI generates its response, you may 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 should you occur to love utilizing em dashes in your writing, accomplish that at your personal threat.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's mother or father firm, filed an April 2025 lawsuit towards OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI methods.)