AI learned how to write from humans. Now humans are trying not to sound like AI.

Writers are scrubbing em dashes and second-guessing old habits to avoid being mistaken for machines

Artificial intelligence is making editors do strange things, like second-guess skills built over entire careers or blanch at the sight of punctuation marks.

This manifested at the recent ACES: The Society for Editing’s virtual conference. For three days at the VCON, hundreds of editors from journalism, public relations, marketing, technical writing and book editing crammed into virtual rooms to attend sessions including “Creating an AI Policy to Address Client Concerns,” “A Seat at the AI Table,” “I Built an AI Style Guide Assistant” and “Polishing the Bot: Editing AI-Assisted Text for Clarity and Flow.”