The dreaded em-dash is one of the biggest giveaways of AI-generated writing. Chatbots love to use it for some reason, potentially giving themselves away. But ChatGPT seems to be offering a workaround for this.
“Small-but-happy win: If you tell ChatGPT not to use em-dashes in your custom instructions, it finally does what it’s supposed to do!” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, in a recent post on X.
The em-dash (which looks like this “—”) is a common form of punctuation. Longer than a hyphen, and an en dash, it is mostly used as a clean separation in a sentence, for adding a punch or clarifying interruptions in your text.
How to stop ChatGPT using em-dashes
Step 1. Go into your settings
Open up ChatGPT, either on the app or in the desktop mode. Then, click on your user profile (where your name shows up) and go into the section titled personalization.
Step 2. Custom instructions
In the Personalization section of ChatGPT, there is a box titled "custom instructions." In here, you can add specific rules for ChatGPT to follow. In this instance, you simply want to add “don’t use em-dashes.”
You can add multiple custom instructions if there are other rules you have in mind. Simply separate them onto different lines for each one.
Step 3. Save and try it out
Once you’ve input the instruction, you simply need to hit save at the bottom of the settings page and go back to using ChatGPT.
Users on X have reported that the chatbot can still sometimes use them. While ChatGPT does follow custom instructions, they aren’t a foolproof solution. They are more an effective step, so continue to monitor its output.
Why does ChatGPT love an em-dash?
It’s not entirely clear why ChatGPT opts to use the em-dash so much. For most people, it isn’t actually a very common punctuation form. It requires a command on a keyboard to use, and is mostly used for dramatic effect.
Some argue that it is because ChatGPT, and most of its competitors, have been trained on huge training data sets, made up of a lot of works of fiction, which would be more likely to use this punctuation than the average person.
Others say that it is simply an easy crutch for a chatbot thinking on the fly. It is an easy way to connect ideas or concepts when firing out a lot of ideas in one go, or adding effect while keeping the text understandable.
As ChatGPT has improved, it has learned to use the punctuation more sparingly, but it hasn’t gone away completely. If you’re someone who never uses em-dashes, adding the custom instruction could make a big difference.
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