If AI was trained on the internet, where the hell did all the em-dashes come from?

I swear the internet did not sound like this five years ago.

Nobody in comment sections was casually writing:

“That’s the thing it’s not about productivity it’s about intentionality.”

Now every AI answer, LinkedIn post, fake founder thread, and “humanized” essay is full of em-dashes like everyone suddenly became a New Yorker editor overnight.

That’s what I don’t get. If these models were trained on actual internet writing, why did they pick up the one punctuation mark normal people barely used? Reddit was mostly typos, commas, bad grammar, half-finished thoughts, and people arguing over nothing.

Now the dead giveaway for AI writing is somehow the most polished punctuation possible.

Feels like AI didn’t learn “how people write online.” It learned how people write when they’re trying to sound smarter than they are.