Worried about using the AI-favoured em dash? Consider this alt symbol

Identity has never been an issue for Ad Nut. With a day split between sorting, hoarding, and consuming nuts, berries and other woodland delicacies, and escaping the attention of murderous beasts, Ad Nut is left with little luxury for existential musings. And as a result, Ad Nut has never felt in danger of being mistaken for a computer, a robot, or an AI-powered entity. 

Humans have it a lot tougher: unable to so much as log on to a website—or, well, use an em dash—without arousing suspicions about being AI-assisted. 

As any reader of this column ought to know by now, Ad Nut is a huge fan of the em dash. And so, it is quite appalling to learn that on seeing an em dash, there are some folk out there who immediately assume that the material they are reading is not the product of careful cogitation and thought, but rather, mindless AI-generated drivel. 

However, there are a few souls out there fighting the good fight against the em dash backlash. Among their number, Australian-independent agency Cocogun which has recently launched the ‘am dash’, taking inspiration from the Descartes maxim ‘I think therefore I am’. Cocogun pits this as no less than ‘The battle for the soul of writing’ and claims that ‘the human fightback starts here’. 

 

To quote further from the press release, “This beloved punctuation mark has become a casualty of the algorithmic age. The em dash has been so widely adopted by AI-generated text that even when used by human hands, it begs the question: was this actually written or apathetically prompted? So, today we’re launching a new punctuation mark: the am dash. The am dash enables writers of all kinds, from journalists to authors to copywriters to take back control. A symbolic gesture of human over machine. A call for less prompting and more provoking. A simple way we, as writers, can make ourselves heard.” 

 

The agency pits the am dash—easily downloadable for both Android and iPhone via http://theamdash.com—as “a symbol of real pondering, genuine daydreaming, and true editorial wordsmithery.” All of which Ad Nut happens to be a huge fan of. 

 

 

With such lofty-minded campaigns that state themselves beyond the pale of commercial metrics, success is always hard to measure. But if the am dash wiggle from Cocogun begins to noticeably replace the more conventional em dash, Ad Nut will assume the humans won this round. It could also mean that the machines learnt to replicate the am dash,  Ad Nut prefers to stick with a happier conclusion to this man-versus-machine saga. 

 

CREDITS
 

Grammar aficionado: Ant Melder

Devoted disciple of wordsmithery: Lewis Clark

Design and typography maestro: Mollie Starr

Concept and craft alchemist: Loz Maneschi

 

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.