B
Benj Edwards
Em dashes have become what many believe to be a
over the past few years. The punctuation mark appears frequently in outputs from ChatGPT and other AI chatbots, sometimes to the point where readers believe they can identify AI writing by its overuse alone—although people can overuse it, too.
On Thursday evening, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on X that ChatGPT has started following custom instructions to avoid using em dashes. “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!” he wrote.
The post, which came two days after the release of OpenAI’s new AI model, received mixed reactions from users who have for years with getting the chatbot to follow specific formatting preferences. And this “small win” raises a very big question: If the world’s most valuable AI company has struggled with controlling something as simple as punctuation use after years of trying, perhaps artificial general intelligence (AGI) is farther off than some in the industry .
On Thursday evening, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on X that ChatGPT has started following custom instructions to avoid using em dashes. “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!” he wrote.
The post, which came two days after the release of OpenAI’s new AI model, received mixed reactions from users who have for years with getting the chatbot to follow specific formatting preferences. And this “small win” raises a very big question: If the world’s most valuable AI company has struggled with controlling something as simple as punctuation use after years of trying, perhaps artificial general intelligence (AGI) is farther off than some in the industry .
