I think you're conflating grammar and composition. Grammar and its use of rules, including commas and dashes, provide clarity in the presentation of a written thought. An ill-formed idea is only marginally helped by proper punctuation. IMO, this is similar in distinction between "standard" AI and generative AI. The former is complicated, but can be mastered by brute compute power. The latter is improving by leaps and bounds, but is still hobbled by a linear, non-emotive process. Interestingly, I've seen a few people lamenting the impending death of empathy, including some books on the idea. https://www.economist.com/united-states/2026/07/23/how-the-american-right-came-to-hate-empathy Personally, I worry a little that could be the undoing of humanity long before Skynet launches its war.
Great to hear from you Shawn and thanks for the comment. Quite likely you are correct. What I e been asking myself since I first read your comment is whether my conflation of these is intentional. Isn’t the conflation of these part and parcel to one’s style of writing? The emm dash for example is now fashionable because Ai has adopted it, but like others I know, we’ve been using them for years. I think I can still claim a bit more novelty with my ellipses… perhaps only until my ignorance is highlighted and others use brought to my attention.
I’ll need more time to read the link, but ahead of that I’ll ask… how could empathy possibly exist from or within an Ai response?
If you want to go down the rabbit hole on using grammar to define your style, I heartily recommend reading some old Herb Caen columns. He influenced a lot of Bay Area culture, which I think probably rippled far afield. https://www.reddit.com/r/Journalism/comments/1h3nla6/3dot_journalism/
That was my point, I guess. I suppose eventually AI may be able to infer emotion from contextual clues. Regardless of whether/when that happens, I think characterizing empathy as bad just further breaks down society. At some point we all go back to endlessly warring tribes of hunters and gatherers. AI can outwit humanity one person at a time far easier than collective humanity.
I hope all is well. Are you still in South America?
I think you're conflating grammar and composition. Grammar and its use of rules, including commas and dashes, provide clarity in the presentation of a written thought. An ill-formed idea is only marginally helped by proper punctuation. IMO, this is similar in distinction between "standard" AI and generative AI. The former is complicated, but can be mastered by brute compute power. The latter is improving by leaps and bounds, but is still hobbled by a linear, non-emotive process. Interestingly, I've seen a few people lamenting the impending death of empathy, including some books on the idea. https://www.economist.com/united-states/2026/07/23/how-the-american-right-came-to-hate-empathy Personally, I worry a little that could be the undoing of humanity long before Skynet launches its war.
Great to hear from you Shawn and thanks for the comment. Quite likely you are correct. What I e been asking myself since I first read your comment is whether my conflation of these is intentional. Isn’t the conflation of these part and parcel to one’s style of writing? The emm dash for example is now fashionable because Ai has adopted it, but like others I know, we’ve been using them for years. I think I can still claim a bit more novelty with my ellipses… perhaps only until my ignorance is highlighted and others use brought to my attention.
I’ll need more time to read the link, but ahead of that I’ll ask… how could empathy possibly exist from or within an Ai response?
If you want to go down the rabbit hole on using grammar to define your style, I heartily recommend reading some old Herb Caen columns. He influenced a lot of Bay Area culture, which I think probably rippled far afield. https://www.reddit.com/r/Journalism/comments/1h3nla6/3dot_journalism/
That was my point, I guess. I suppose eventually AI may be able to infer emotion from contextual clues. Regardless of whether/when that happens, I think characterizing empathy as bad just further breaks down society. At some point we all go back to endlessly warring tribes of hunters and gatherers. AI can outwit humanity one person at a time far easier than collective humanity.
I hope all is well. Are you still in South America?