---
title: "Don't Be an Em Dash"
description: "Usamah Zaheer on getting replies from people he knows that were pasted out of ChatGPT and sent as their own, when a couple of words they typed themselves would have done."
canonical_url: "https://www.usamah.me/blog/dont-be-an-em-dash"
author: "Usamah Zaheer"
date_published: "2026-09-17"
date_modified: "2026-09-18"
type: "article"
word_count: 355
---

# Don't Be an Em Dash

Lately I get replies from people I know that run on for four paragraphs, with the headings still in. A few people put "I asked ChatGPT and it said" at the top, which is at least honest. The rest send it as if they'd typed it themselves, and I can usually tell anyway.

A phone keyboard has no key for an em dash. You hold down the hyphen and pick it from a little menu, and I don't think many people bother in a text. So when a reply has three of them in it, I assume it was pasted. People do use them on a proper keyboard, and I think the newer models use them less anyway, so that won't work for long.

I feel so disrespected when I get one of these. Doesn't matter that it's well written.

Most messages between people who know each other don't say much. Happy birthday. Sorry I missed your call. How did the interview go. Are you still coming on Saturday.

> The point of the message is that you bothered.

I'd rather have a couple of words you typed yourself. "Sorry, been busy" is fine.

> Can't you type a message if you really want to talk to me?

It's worse when you want something from me, a favour or some advice, and that's pasted too.

There's [a study on this from Ohio State](https://news.osu.edu/ai-can-help-write-a-message-to-a-friend--but-dont-do-it/). People imagined a friend replying to them about a birthday, or being burnt out, and the ones told the friend had used AI came away less sure the friend liked them. It was the same when another person had helped, so I don't think it's the AI bit that bothers people. The study didn't cover finding out for yourself, and I'd guess that's worse.

The complaint to the energy company or the email in your second language isn't personal, so use ChatGPT for those.

Once I've spotted it I wonder about everything else you send me. Maybe I'm being precious about this and in five years everyone does it and nobody minds, the way nobody minds autocorrect now. I don't know yet.

## About the author

Usamah Zaheer is a Machine Learning Software Engineer at Arm, where he designs and optimises ML infrastructure for Arm architectures. He is pursuing an MS in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Texas at Austin and holds an MS in Embedded Systems from the University of Leicester. His work spans deep learning, computer vision, edge computing, robotics, and MLOps across companies including Arm, Dyson, and the University of Leicester. Full CV: https://www.usamah.me/index.md. His book on efficient machine learning is at https://ai.usamah.me.

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