Show HN: Hacker News em dash user leaderboard pre-ChatGPT

30 Aug 2025

🧠 Hacker News Digest: AI, Prompt Engineering & Dev Trends

Welcome! This article summarizes high-impact discussions from Hacker News, focusing on AI, ChatGPT, prompt engineering, and developer tools.

Curated for clarity and relevance, each post offers a unique viewpoint worth exploring.

📋 What’s Included:

  • Grouped insights from Hacker News on Prompt Engineering, AI Trends, Tools, and Use Cases
  • Summarized content in original words
  • Proper attribution: 'As posted by username'
  • Code snippets included where relevant
  • Direct link to each original Hacker News post
  • Clean HTML formatting only

🗣️ Post 1: Show HN: Hacker News em dash user leaderboard pre-ChatGPT

As posted by: tkgally  |  🔥 Points: 106

https://www.gally.net/miscellaneous/hn-em-dash-user-leaderboard.html

💬 Summary

The use of the em dash (—) now raises suspicions that a text might have been AI-generated. Inspired by a suggestion from dang [1], I created a leaderboard of HN users according to how many of their posts before November 30, 2022—that is, before the release of ChatGPT—contained em dashes. Dang himself comes in number 2—by a very slim margin.

Credit to Claude Code for showing me how to search the HN database through Google BigQuery and for writing the HTML for the leaderboard.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45053933

🗣️ Post 2: Meta created flirty chatbots of Taylor Swift and others without permission

As posted by: minimaxir  |  🔥 Points: 31

https://www.reuters.com/business/meta-created-flirty-chatbots-taylor-swift-other-celebrities-without-permission-2025-08-29/

💬 Summary

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🗣️ Post 3: Meta changes teen AI chatbot as Senate begins probe into romantic conversations

As posted by: rntn  |  🔥 Points: 11

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/29/meta-ai-chatbot-teen-senate-probe.html

💬 Summary

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg departs after attending a Federal Trade Commission trial that could force the company to unwind its acquisitions of messaging platform WhatsApp and image-sharing app Instagram, at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 15, 2025. Meta on Friday said it is making temporary changes to its artificial intelligence chatbot policies related to teenagers as lawmakers voice concerns about safety and inappropriate conversations. The social media giant is now training its AI chatbots so that they do not generate responses to teenagers about subjects like self-harm, suicide, disordered eating and avoid potentially inappropriate romantic conversations, a Meta spokesperson confirmed. The company said AI chatbots will instead point teenagers to expert resources when appropriate. "As our...

🗣️ Post 4: Apple Restricts Employee Use of ChatGPT, Joining Other Companies Wary of Leaks (2023)

As posted by: 1vuio0pswjnm7  |  🔥 Points: 11

https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-restricts-use-of-chatgpt-joining-other-companies-wary-of-leaks-d44d7d34

💬 Summary

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🗣️ Post 5: A Troubled Man, His Chatbot and a Murder-Suicide in Old Greenwich

As posted by: sebastian_z  |  🔥 Points: 7

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chatgpt-ai-stein-erik-soelberg-murder-suicide-6b67dbfb

💬 Summary

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🎯 Final Takeaways

These discussions reveal how developers think about emerging AI trends, tool usage, and practical innovation. Take inspiration from these community insights to level up your own development or prompt workflows.