97%
In a 2023 Stanford-led study, 89 of 91 human-written TOEFL essays were flagged as AI-generated by at least one of seven detectors tested.
A declaration for human writing
Established in the age of AI
— ≠ AI
Punctuation
is not proof.
An em dash is punctuation. A semicolon is punctuation. Formal prose is a style.
None of them, on their own, proves who — or what — wrote a sentence.
People should not have to make their writing worse just to make it look human.
01 Evidence
This is bigger than one punctuation mark.
Statistical patterns can justify questions. They cannot, by themselves, determine authorship.
<20%
Turnitin treats AI-writing results below 20% differently because false positives are more likely in this range and does not report an exact percentage.
69,632
A 2026 preregistered study examined 69,632 scientific preprints and found an increase in em-dash use in the generative-AI era. The finding is useful at a population level. It does not make an em dash a per-document authorship detector.
Patterns can raise questions. They cannot answer them by themselves.
Explore the evidence →02 The mark
Before it became an AI stereotype, it was punctuation.
The em dash is a punctuation mark used to create a break, interruption, insertion or emphasis within a sentence.
It can perform some functions similar to commas, parentheses or colons, while often creating a stronger break.
Interruption
I was about to explain — but she already understood.
A sudden break or shift in thought.
Insertion
The decision — unexpected at the time — changed everything.
Additional information set apart from the main sentence.
Emphasis
There was one problem — the evidence proved nothing.
Strong emphasis on what follows.
The technology is new. The punctuation is not.
Learn about the em dash →03 The distinction
A punctuation mark became a suspicion.
The em dash has become one of the stylistic features associated with AI-generated writing.
That association is not completely imaginary. Generative AI can influence statistical patterns in written language, and researchers have observed changes in em-dash frequency in some large collections of text.
Statistical observation
“This pattern appears more often in a population of AI-assisted writing.”
Individual accusation
“You used this pattern, therefore you used AI.”
They are not the same claim.
04 Why we exist
When normal writing becomes “evidence”.
A polished paragraph can look suspicious.
A formal phrase can look suspicious.
A semicolon can look suspicious.
An em dash can look suspicious.
And writers learn the wrong lesson.
- Remove the punctuation.
- Break the sentence.
- Choose the less precise word.
- Make the paragraph less polished.
- Introduce mistakes.
Write worse to look more human.
That is the wrong response to generative AI.
Systems designed to protect the integrity of writing should not punish people for writing well.
05 The standard
Detection is not the same as proof.
AI-authorship detection is a classification problem with uncertainty, false positives and context-dependent performance.
Research has documented uneven results across different groups of writers, including the Stanford research on non-native English writers cited above.
Style can be a signal.
Style can justify a question.
Style can contribute context.
Style alone is not proof.
The principle
AI should not make humans afraid of sounding human.
The arrival of generative AI changes how we think about authorship. It should not change a basic standard of fairness:
If you accuse someone of something, the evidence should actually support the accusation.
— ≠ AI
06 What we believe
What we believe.
Four principles. No more than the evidence can support.
01
Punctuation is not proof.
No individual punctuation mark establishes authorship.
02
Style alone is not proof.
Writing characteristics can provide context. They should not, alone, determine misconduct.
03
Humans should not have to write worse.
People should not be pushed toward simpler, less expressive or deliberately imperfect writing just to avoid suspicion.
04
Your voice belongs to you.
The existence of generative AI does not transfer ownership of ordinary human styles, structures or vocabulary to machines.
07 The Declaration
Turn the principle into a public standard.
The Em Dash Rights Declaration sets out a simple position:
Writing style alone should not be treated as proof of AI authorship.
It asks schools, universities, employers, publishers and other institutions to distinguish between:
- suspicion / evidence
- patterns / proof
- detection / determination
The Declaration is a public statement of principle. It is not a court ruling, statute or legally binding petition.
Declare
Make the Declaration
Stand for writing that is judged by its meaning, not by punctuation patterns.
— people have made the Declaration.
08 Real stories
What happens when style becomes evidence?
The archive records experiences involving AI-authorship accusations, stylistic suspicion and institutional decisions.
No likes. No comments. No public pile-ons. Just documented accounts.
The archive is being built from submitted experiences.
09 The movement
A public record, not a private opinion.
Counts come from published records. They are not estimates.
declarations
2
people signed
1
countries represented
0
stories submitted
organisations supporting
No verified organisational endorsements have been published yet. Become an early organisational endorser.
View signatories →10 For institutions
There is a better standard.
Schools, universities, employers and other organisations do not need to ignore AI misuse in order to treat people fairly.
Do not treat punctuation, vocabulary, sentence structure or stylistic resemblance as standalone proof of AI authorship.
Investigate evidence. Consider context. Give people a meaningful opportunity to respond. Do not turn ordinary writing into an offence.
The symbol
The symbol is deliberately simple.
The em dash represents something larger than itself:
Ordinary features of human expression should not become presumptions of guilt merely because machines can imitate them.
Copy it. Share it. Use it.
Write like yourself
Machines learned from human writing.
That does not mean human writing now belongs to machines.
We should be able to write formally.
We should be able to write precisely.
We should be able to use long sentences, short sentences, semicolons, unusual vocabulary —
and em dashes.
Without treating our own voice as evidence against us.
Write like yourself.
Punctuation is not proof.