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The dead giveaway that ChatGPT wrote your content - and how to work around it

Published on: 2025-08-02 23:59:11

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET 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. Also: ChatGPT is your personal shopper now - here's how it works 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 ... Read full article.