That is, a fear of AI-generated writing and, now more than ever, a fear of being accused of creating AI-generated writing and passing it off as your own. Thus, the obvious conclusion and solution was to try and make our writing “look more human”. Instead of debating ideas, we’re scrutinising punctuation, and instead of rewarding good writing, we’re becoming suspicious of it. The irony is that, in our attempt to preserve authentic human writing, we’re encouraging people to write less naturally. Indeed, I may not like the em dash, but I’ll defend to the death your right to use it.