Tangent: the analysis linked to by the article to another article about rhetorical tricks is pretty interesting. I hadn't realized it consciously, but LLMs really go beyond the em-dashes thing, and part of their tell-tale signs is indeed "punched up paragraphs". Every paragraphs has to be played for maximum effect, contain an opposition of ideas/metaphors, and end with a mic drop!

Some of it is normal in humans, but LLMs do it all the goddamn time, if not told otherwise.

I think it might be for engagement (like the sycophancy) but also because they must have been trained in online conversation, where we humans tend to be more melodramatic and less "normal" in our conversation.