Hard Fork Podcast Summary

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

Date: February 13, 2026
Hosts: Kevin Roose (The New York Times), Casey Newton (Platformer)
Guest: Alexandra Alter (The New York Times)

Overview

This episode tackles three major topics:

1. The mounting anxiety in Washington D.C., Silicon Valley, and beyond about AI’s rapid impact on software, business models and jobs (“Something Big Is Happening”).
2. The disruption of the romance novel industry by AI-generated fiction, with guest Alexandra Alter offering a deep dive into the phenomenon.
3. The new “One Good Thing” segment, where the hosts share positive tech stories.

The tone is playful, fast-paced, and candid, with the hosts blending sharp analysis with dry humor.

1. AI Freakouts: “Something Big Is Happening”

Key Discussion Points

• Washington D.C. on Edge About AI

  • Kevin describes a palpable sense of panic during his recent trip to D.C., where lawmakers and staff anxiously question the credibility and speed of AI progress.
  • “It does feel like the...political salience of AI has gotten much, much higher just in the past couple of weeks.” (Kevin, 02:17)

• Market Shocks: The “SaaS Apocalypse”

  • Many B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) firms (Salesforce, Workday, Monday.com, etc.) have seen their stock prices tumble, as investors fear AI-enabled disruption.
  • AI tools now empower smaller teams or even end users to recreate complex business functions, threatening incumbent business models.
  • “If you are a company that builds software for other companies, you are not having a good month.” (Kevin, 05:14)

• Changing Business Models

  • AI agents may diminish the need for traditional seat-based pricing; outcome-based pricing is on the rise.
  • “Maybe paying by the seat isn’t really going to make sense anymore because we’re actually just going to have one agent that does that whole thing.” (Casey, 09:46)

• Security vs. Speed

  • Concerns about buggy, insecure, or noncompliant AI software abound, especially among regulated industries, but the pace of adoption is unlikely to slow.
  • “If there’s one thing we’ve seen…security is basically the last priority, at least for the...bleeding edge maniacs who just want to try everything first.” (Casey, 12:39)

Notable Viral Essay: “Something Big Is Happening” (by Matt Shumer)

• The essay, widely shared, argues that AI agentic coding has already automated much software engineering (“I am no longer needed for the actual technical work of my job”) and technological timelines are compressing.
• Recursive self-improvement of AIs is accelerating model development.
• “OpenAI says that [Codex] is their first model that was instrumental in creating itself.” (Kevin, 16:09)

Hosts’ Reflections and Debate

• Caution about “self-improving AI” hype, balanced by reports from engineers seeing workflow upheavals and relentless AI agents.
• Practical advice for listeners is still elusive. Both hosts encourage experimenting with tools, understanding market shifts, and pressing lawmakers on real plans for labor disruption.
• “Get familiar with the tools…if you have not touched cloud code or codex or one of these agentic coding tools…get back up to speed.” (Kevin, 23:01)

Memorable Quotes

• “If you are still writing code by hand, that is going to be an obsolete behavior.” (Kevin, 21:49)
• “We do need to have a political conversation about this and we may need to have, you know, real sort of government answers for people if and when their jobs do become automated away.” (Casey, 24:14)

2. Interview: A.I. Rocks the Romance Novel Industry

Guest: Alexandra Alter

Key Discussion Points

• AI Alters Romance Novels

  • Recent OpenAI changes allow for AI-generated erotica, leading Alexandra to investigate whether writers and publishers felt threatened—surprisingly, some enthusiastically embraced the tech.
  • Writers using tools like Sudowrite, Red Quill, My Spicy Vanilla, Claude, and ChatGPT can drastically speed output: up from 10 books per year to over 200 in one reported case.
  • “If you learn how to prompt the bot correctly, it will write a pretty compelling sex scene…some can write a book in a day and have it edited, ready to publish.” (Alexandra, 31:44)

• Complex Prompt Engineering

  • Successful authors invest considerable effort into prompt crafting—specifying genres, sexual settings, forbidden phrases (like “turgid manhood”), and emotional pacing.
  • “It’s very important that you tell the chatbot to slow down. Cause otherwise they just jump to the end of the scene. Everyone’s tangled in the sheets.” (Alexandra, 35:26)

• Quality and Creativity

  • AI-produced content is formulaic, often lacking emotional nuance or originality, but can be prolific in hitting reader-demanded tropes.
  • “AI is really bad at human emotion, at nuance, at kind of the slow burn.” (Alexandra, 38:49)
  • Readers and writers are split: many authors see themselves evolving into “directors” rather than writers, while most readers still expect a human touch.

• Disclosure, Trust, and Publisher Response

  • Few authors reveal their books are AI-generated, fearing backlash. Big publishers are hesitant to publish AI-authored works because of copyright and authenticity concerns.
  • “There were a couple of romantasy authors last year who accidentally left AI prompts in their books. People got quite upset about that.” (Alexandra, 41:54)
  • Publishers may soon cut out human writers and prompt their own AI books, though the value of author-reader “parasocial” relationships remains high.

• Emergence of “AI-isms”

  • Alexandra notes odd linguistic patterns seeping into books, such as the repeated phrase “he whispered her name like a ragged prayer”—traced to both AI models and popular romantasy books.
  • “One of them said, I’ve actually had to block that phrase. It loves to say ragged prayer." (Alexandra, 47:04)

Notable Moment:

• [33:32] Casey: “Coral Hart…created 21 different pen names and published more than 200 romance novels…ended up making six figures…she really learned a lot about which models, which chatbots would do what for her. She would combine them. Now she’s created her own proprietary AI writing system…”

3. Segment: One Good Thing

Casey’s Pick: Spotify’s Prompted Playlists

• A feature for Premium subscribers that lets users generate playlists using plain language prompts, powered by AI.
• “It’s kind of a magic thing. This is one where the limit is only your creativity and your imagination.” (Casey, 59:07)
• Example use cases: “Show me songs I’ve listened to at least 20 times but not in the past two months,” “Songs whose titles don’t appear in the lyrics.”

Kevin’s Pick: Google’s Whale Song AI (Perch 2.0 Foundation Model)

• Google developed a bioacoustics foundation model, originally trained on bird songs, that generalizes to classifying and recognizing underwater animal sounds, accelerating research in marine life communication.
• “If you make a model better at classifying bird sounds, it also gets better at classifying underwater sounds.” (Kevin, 61:03)

Fun Ending

• The hosts exchange puns about whales (“This is not a fluke. We’re not spouting nonsense. Free willy nilly. This is a new kriller app for AI.” – Kevin, 59:22)
• Classic banter and recommendations for listeners to get creative and enjoy new tech features.

Timestamps to Key Segments

• Washington D.C. AI panic and SaaS market disruption: 02:04–14:45
• Analysis of “Something Big Is Happening” essay and agentic AI coding: 14:45–24:23
• Discussion: What should people do about AI?: 22:31–24:23
• Romance novels and AI takeover, with Alexandra Alter: 27:28–48:50
• The “ragged prayer” AIism phenomenon: 46:59–48:22
• One Good Thing – Spotify AI playlists: 51:19–59:16
• One Good Thing – Google’s whale song AI: 59:20–62:59

Memorable Quotes

• “I think that by the end of the year, if you are still writing code by hand, that is going to be an obsolete behavior.”
  — Kevin, 21:49

• “Even the writers I spoke to who use AI said AI is really bad at human emotion, at nuance, at kind of the slow burn.”
  — Alexandra, 38:49

• “It’s very important that you tell the chatbot to slow down. Cause otherwise they just jump to the end of the scene. Everyone’s tangled in the sheets.”
  — Alexandra, 35:26

• “Security is basically the last priority, at least for the...bleeding edge maniacs who just want to try everything first.”
  — Casey, 12:39

• “This needs to be part of our political conversation…What is your plan for [permanent unemployment]?”
  — Casey, 23:43

Practical Takeaways

• For workers: Experiment with AI tools and advocate for robust political responses to workforce disruption.
• For readers and writers: AI can amplify productivity, but still struggles with emotional nuance and human connection.
• For tech users: Seek out new AI features that empower instead of replace creativity (Spotify playlists, etc.)
• For industry: Business models reliant on user “seats” may face extinction; adaptation is critical.

End of Summary