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Hard Fork

‘Something Big Is Happening’ + A.I. Rocks the Romance Novel Industry + One Good Thing

2026-02-13 · 61 min · episode 180 · 4 entities

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This week, we discuss Wall Street’s software-stock sell-off and a viral essay on X about the potential for widespread job displacement from A.I. Then, the New York Times reporter Alexandra Alter walks us through the process that a growing number of writers are adopting to churn out romance novels with help from A.I. chatbots. Finally, we each share one bit of good tech-related news — a new way to make playlists on Spotify and progress toward decoding whale sounds.   Guest: Alexandra Alter, a New York Times reporter covering books and publishing.   Additional Reading: The Dark Side of A.I. Weighs on Tech Stocks Matt Shumer’s essay “Something Big Is Happening” The New Fabio Is Claude How a New A.I. Tool Fixed My Single Biggest Problem With Spotify How A.I. Trained on Birds Is Surfacing Underwater Mysteries   We want to hear from you. Email us at hardfork@nytimes.com . Find “Hard Fork” on YouTube and TikTok . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher . For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.