What is a ‘ChatGPT hyphen’? Gen Z sleuths claim to have cracked the code to expose AI-generated content

For most writers, the em dash is a trusted stylistic tool — versatile, expressive, and a little rebellious. It slides into sentences like a jack-of-all-trades, standing in for commas, parentheses, or colons. It helps frame thoughts, add dramatic flair, and break the fourth wall of formal writing. But now, it’s doing something else entirely: allegedly exposing AI-generated text.

Gen Z internet sleuths and TikTok-era writers have dubbed the em dash the “ChatGPT hyphen,” and the nickname is catching on faster than a typo in a group chat. This quirky revelation first made waves in a podcast episode of LuxeGen, hosted by Daisy Reed and Sapna Rao. When their conversation made it to X (formerly Twitter), it exploded.

“The fact that Zoomers are unironically referring to the em-dash as ‘the ChatGPT hyphen’ is wild,” a user posted, sharing a clip from the podcast. Suddenly, a humble punctuation mark became a digital fingerprint — one that could allegedly trace a text’s origins back to the AI writing assistant many students secretly use.

From Fashion Announcements to Essay Submissions

The turning point? A rebranding post from the fashion label PrettyLittleThing. Among the sea of comments, one in particular stood out: “Including the ChatGPT hyphen is insane.” That moment of punctuation shaming sent a ripple through digital circles. Reed and Rao chuckled over it but quickly turned serious — issuing a playful yet firm PSA: if you don’t want to be accused of outsourcing your homework to AI, “take out the hyphen.”

Rao elaborated further. She wasn’t against ChatGPT outright. In fact, she viewed it as a helpful tool — so long as users wrote their initial drafts themselves. The real issue, she suggested, was blindly copy-pasting AI content without making it truly one’s own. Her rule of thumb? “Person, ChatGPT, person.” In other words, sandwich your AI edits between your own voice to maintain authenticity.

But Is It Really a ‘Tell’?

Here’s where it gets grammatically muddy. The em dash — the actual name of this “AI hyphen” — does have stylistic variants. Some style guides demand spaces on either side; others insist on a tight fit. Different writers and platforms use it differently. So, can one really claim that a lack of spacing is a surefire sign of AI interference? Probably not, say grammar purists and editors. But for Gen Z, the symbolism is more cultural than technical. It’s not just about punctuation — it’s about reclaiming authorship in an era where AI can finish your sentence before you’ve even thought of it.

Writing in the Age of Suspicion

In classrooms and online spaces, a subtle paranoia is setting in. Has that perfectly structured paragraph been written by a person or by a bot? Are those dashes just a stylistic flourish, or a digital tell? With AI tools becoming more sophisticated — and more accessible — the line between original and generated content is blurrier than ever.

For now, Gen Z seems to be leading the charge in AI detection, armed not with code or algorithms, but with an editor’s eye and a sharp sense of irony. Whether or not the em dash truly deserves its new alias, it’s certainly found itself at the center of a curious cultural moment.

So next time you’re typing up a late-night essay or dashing off an Instagram caption — pause before you em dash. Someone might just be watching.