Small update, big relief: for months, ChatGPT users around the world complained that even when they specifically asked the system to avoid using the long dash – that horizontal line that appears between sentences, the system continued to insert it in almost every paragraph. The sign, known in English as the em dash, has meanwhile become an unofficial hallmark of writing created by artificial intelligence.
In the past year, the long dash caused an uproar among writers, editors and educators, who claimed that it had become an identification tool for texts created by artificial intelligence. It appeared in academic papers, emails, online comments, customer service chats, classified ads, and LinkedIn posts. Many even claimed that the very use of it indicates laziness on the part of the writer who relied on AI software.
On the other hand, there were also defenders of the dash. Some have argued that it is a legitimate and elegant punctuation mark that was used long before the age of artificial intelligence. However, the fact that the major linguistic models tended to use it frequently made it such a suspicious sign that it was dubbed the “ChatGPT dash”.
The update was enthusiastically received online, and Altman’s post received tens of thousands of likes. Many users thanked the company for listening to feedback and giving them back control over their writing style. Others actually expressed nostalgia for the long dash and claimed that it gave the ChatGPT texts a special literary flavor.
OpenAI noted that the new setting is now available to all users of the ChatGPT Plus and free versions, under the “Custom Instructions” option in the customization area. The company also published an amusing post in which ChatGPT “apologizes” for “ruining the long dash”, and promises to follow new rules from now on.