Ask HN: Do AIs reply with numerous em dashes to save money somehow?
3•amichail•1h ago
Maybe those replies are cheaper to generate at least for some models like those used by ChatGPT?
Comments
incomingpain•1h ago
No. For hundreds of years authors loved to use the em dash. It was a sign of quality writing. Only very recently has it stopped getting used and only because the - is on the wrong side of the keyboard and it's becoming more a hyphen instead.
When someone uses an em dash, it implies they arent using a normal keyboard; not even dvorak.
amichail•26m ago
So maybe the training data has a lot of old English writing and overcoming the model's tendency to use em dashes everywhere with custom instructions would use up more electricity in AI replies.
incomingpain•1h ago
When someone uses an em dash, it implies they arent using a normal keyboard; not even dvorak.
amichail•26m ago