I have been testing ChatGPT since it launched in November 2022 and have seen updates improve its writing capabilities. However, fairly recently, I noticed a pattern in ChatGPT's output -- the repeated use of the em dash. 

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While the em dash is a punctuation mark loved by many writers, such as myself, as seen in the sentence above, it also seems to be ChatGPT's favorite. While the em dash, also referred to as a hyphen, is a sophisticated way to add a pause, break, or an aside into a sentence, it may be worth switching to the comma, or you may start raising suspicions that you rely on AI. 

The em dash problem

Don't believe me? Once I started noticing this pattern, I looked it up, and it's not just me noticing it. There are Reddit threads, OpenAI Developer Community discussions, and even various articles dedicated to what is referred to as the "ChatGPT Hyphen". 

As I stated earlier, em dash aficionados are everywhere, wedded to their favorite punctuation mark, so I ran an experiment to test my observations. 

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I asked ChatGPT to write me a quick conversational summary explaining what ChatGPT is and to define some use cases. In the first sentence, the em dash made an appearance: 

ChatGPT is basically an AI that you can talk to-kind of like having a super helpful writing buddy on call 24/7. It's trained to understand all kinds of questions and prompts, and it can generate text that sounds pretty natural and human. You can use it for tons of writing tasks: things like drafting emails, writing blog posts, coming up with social media captions, brainstorming ideas, or even helping edit and polish what you've already written. It's also great for creative projects like stories or poems, and it can explain tricky concepts in a really easy-to-understand way. Basically, if it involves words, ChatGPT can probably help!

I then asked ChatGPT to tell me about New York in the summer, and the em dash was sprinkled through its output: 

Absolutely! New York City in the summer is vibrant, energetic, and packed with things to do - but also hot, busy, and sometimes a bit overwhelming.

What to expect:

• Weather: It's usually hot and humid, with temps in the high 70s to 90s