Should You Be Afraid of the SaaSpocalypse?

Описание: 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
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/bu...

Matt Shumer’s essay “Something Big Is Happening”
https://x.com/mattshumer_/status/2021...

The New Fabio Is Claude
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/bu...

How a New A.I. Tool Fixed My Single Biggest Problem With Spotify
https://www.platformer.news/spotify-p...

How A.I. Trained on Birds Is Surfacing Underwater Mysteries
https://research.google/blog/how-ai-t...

Chapters:
00:00:00 - What's going on with the SaaS stock market?
00:13:20 - "Something Big is Coming" essay
00:23:43 - A.I. Slop is taking over the romance publishing world
00:45:48 - Our new segment: One Good Thing

Hard Fork is a weekly look into the future that's already here. Hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore stories from the bleeding edge of tech.
Casey’s publication, Platformer: https://www.platformer.news/

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Credits
“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton. Produced by Rachel Cohn and Whitney Jones. Edited by Vjeran Pavic. Engineering by Chris Wood and original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Sophia Lanman and Rowan Niemisto. Fact-checking by Ena Alvarado and Will Peischel. Our executive producer is Jen Poyant. Video production by Chris Schodt and Sawyer Roque. Video QC by Isabella Anderson. Podcast Art Direction by Benjamin Wilkerson Tousley. Podcast Art & Animations by Julian Hespenheide. Additional Motion graphics by Phil Robibero. Thumbnails by Julia Moburg, Elizabeth Bristow and Yvonne Stender. Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam and Dahlia Haddad.