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

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 .

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‘Something Big Is Happening’ + A.I. Rocks the Romance Novel Industry + One Good Thing is an episode from Sway by The New York Times.

This episode is 01:00:38 long.

This episode was published on Feb 13, 2026.

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