‘Something Big Is Happening’ + A.I. Rocks the Romance Novel Industry + One Good Thing
2/13/20261 hr 1 min
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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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDana0:00
[upbeat music] Hi, my name is Dana. I am a subscriber to The New York Times, but my husband isn't, and it would be really nice to be able to share a recipe or an article, or compete with him in Wordle or Connections. Thank you.
Kevin Roose· Host0:17
Dana, we heard you. Introducing the New York Times Family Subscription. One subscription, up to four separate logins for anyone in your life. Find out more at nytimes.com/family.
Casey Newton· Host0:29
Well, Kevin, did you see this? Elon Musk told employees at xAI that the company needs a factory on the moon to build AI satellites and a massive catapult to launch them into space!
Kevin Roose· Host0:44
[laughing] [laughing] Yes, this is his new pivot from Mars. He's no longer interested in Mars, uh, as he was all those years. Now, he's going to the moon.
Casey Newton· Host0:51
This Looney Tunes-ass company- [laughing] ... I swear to God. Elon Musk, I have a message for you: If Bugs Bunny ever shows up and tells you to climb into that catapult, do not trust him, okay? [laughing] That is a rascally rabbit, and, and you [chuckles] you might find yourself in space, my friend.
Kevin Roose· Host1:06
He's gonna launch you from the moon catapult.
Casey Newton· Host1:09
You know what? That might be the way I wanna go out, honestly- [laughing] -is just have a nice long career in journalism, and then put me in the moon catapult. [laughing] I'm, I'm ready.
Kevin Roose· Host1:18
[upbeat music] I'm Kevin Roose, a tech columnist at The New York Times.
Casey Newton· Host1:26
I'm Casey Newton from Platformer.
Kevin Roose· Host1:27
And this is Hard Fork.
Casey Newton· Host1:28
This week, labor