AI Slop and the em-dash

I saw a post on X/Twitter today citing the use of the em-dash as a clear giveaway of AI-powered writing.

My current smells of AI slop/writing:

1. Use of em dash "—". I haven't seen anyone seriously use this over a hyphen "-". Double points for wrapping — or making double points in a single sentence — give it away

2. Making a statement and then colon: like this

3. More subtle, but…

— Greg Kamradt (@GregKamradt) February 27, 2026

Sadly, it’s not quite this easy …

I use WordPress for my site. I’ve used WordPress consistently since I started publishing in public back in 2007. It’s evolved quite a bit since those early days, but the core promise is the same: a clean, clear interface for writing that democratizes publishing for all.

In fact, WordPress itself was a fork of an earlier project: b2/cafelog. The original project had stopped development, and Matt Mullenweg wanted to add specific typography improvements. I remember a talk he gave once about wanting to add curly quotes to his site, thus partly leading to the fork.

The beauty of tools like WordPress lies in focus. I don’t need to know when to use a quote mark that curls one way or the other. I just write, stay focused on content, and the publishing engine does the work for me.

The em-dash

I grew up using semicolons and hyphens. Frequently. They were the easiest way to add an interjecting thought to my prose – kind of a casual aside in an otherwise professional piece – without breaking stride.

But when I add a hypen, I merely type a literal - on my keyboard. This renders as an en-dash when you read my work. But some professional writers, long before generative AI was even a thing, heavily leveraged a longer em-dash in their work.

In fact, that used to be what would help distinguish casual writing against professional. Because the pros could afford to either take the time (or pay someone) to implement proper typography in their publications.

But tools like WordPress made that accessible to everyone.

The two images below show the impact WordPress adds for writing with hyphens. On the left, the raw input in WordPress’ Gutenberg editor. On the right, the rendered output in a preview.

• The first line gives you an en-dash
• The second, a double hyphen, renders as an em-dash
• The third again as an en-dash
• The fourth, again, as an em-dash
• Single hyphens within words give you a literal hyphen
• Double hyphens within words give you an en-dash

Writing that sample I only pressed one key (repeatedly) on my keyboard, but was able to, depending on context, render three distinct characters.

I haven’t seen anyone seriously use [an em-dash] over a hyphen

I don’t ever use an em-dash, seriously or otherwise. Neither do I ever seriously use an en-dash. However, you see examples of both in this very article because the tools I use help polish my typography.

Can the em-dash be an indicator of AI-generated content? Sure. But it’s also an indication that someone is using a serious writing tool. Don’t mistake one for the other.