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:<ul><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/alexandra-alter">Alexandra Alter,</a> a New York Times reporter covering books and publishing.</li></ul> Additional Reading:<ul><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/business/ai-stock-market-anthropic-openai.html">The Dark Side of A.I. Weighs on Tech Stocks</a></li><li><a href="https://x.com/mattshumer_/status/2021256989876109403">Matt Shumer’s essay “Something Big Is Happening”</a></li><li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/business/ai-claude-romance-books.html">The New Fabio Is Claude</a></li><li><a href="https://www.platformer.news/spotify-prompted-playlists-ai-meta-vibes/">How a New A.I. Tool Fixed My Single Biggest Problem With Spotify</a></li><li><a href="https://research.google/blog/how-ai-trained-on-birds-is-surfacing-underwater-mysteries/">How A.I. Trained on Birds Is Surfacing Underwater Mysteries</a></li></ul> We want to hear from you. Email us at <a href="mailto:hardfork@nytimes.com">hardfork@nytimes.com</a>. Find “Hard Fork” on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/hardfork" target="_blank">YouTube</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@hardfork" target="_blank">TikTok</a>.
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