The FT asked me to write about how you can avoid your writing being mistaken for AI-generated copy. I have thoughts! They’re a bit spicy: https://on.ft.com/42EwQfd Are you AI, or simply a grammar pedant?
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I think we need to start writing multilingual verse. Humans have the ability to find meaning where none is to be found. We need to learn to do the Arrakis walk lest the sand worm find us.
I use em dashes - where appropriate - and I think I'm a sentient human. Are we sure that an hallucinating AI system hasn't been asked how to spot another hallucinating AI system?
"Where are you going?" one asks. "I'm going to Pinsk," the other replies. To which the first answers, "You say you are going to Pinsk, because you want me to think you are going to Minsk. But I know you are going to Pinsk. So why are you lying to me?"
I have always used the em dash as a sign of UK writers plagiarising American copy (that and using the "wrong" quote marks like I just did, or punctuating inside them), so it would at the very least be a red flag for me.
Thing is, there’s a lot of mixing going on now. I have US clients that prefer no Oxford comma, UK-Eng punctuation with quotes, and space-en-dash-space over em-dash. Similarly, US grammar and vocab is creeping into UK usage. End point is presumably some kind of mash-up.
Just be incorrect about everything, miss the central point of every issue, occasionally write about the wrong issue entirely, and assert the resulting dog's dinner with absolute confidence.
Actually I think I just described the full quarrel of Spectator writers by mistake.
The dashes thing is funny. One of my editors publicly took the piss out of me for filing copy with “dashes as long as your arm” or similar. I used to use them fully. UK style, though, was ditching the em dash around then, and that’s now crossed the pond. (Early Internet caused issues there too.)
As you note, there are tells with AI-gen copy. But I imagine for many, it’s good enough. And it’s cheap. Lots of corporates are flirting with it for scratch written copy or edits from transcripts/bullets. You need a writer at one end + an editor at the other for good results. But OK results? Cheap!
I use em-dashes so frequently that I programmed a shortcut for them. But then again — my style was forged in Australia and much of what I write is for Americans, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(that's another shortcut. It gets a lot of use these days)
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Shrug. Heavy sigh...
Actually I think I just described the full quarrel of Spectator writers by mistake.
Does this mean I’m a robot? :(
(that's another shortcut. It gets a lot of use these days)
And considering I also have a shortcut for ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, we might be very similar.