AI and the Creator Economy with Karen X Cheng

Generative AI tools like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion have taken the world by storm in recent months, wowing the masses with their uncanny ability to produce images via text prompts.

In this interview, we’ll chat with Karen Cheng about how she’s leveraged these tools among others, with a focus on how this new paradigm is reshaping the creator landscape. You’ll get to hear the behind the scenes of many of her viral works, including a video of her becoming a lawnmower, her AI-generated Cosmo magazine cover, her DALL-E fashion show, her transforming iconic art into 3D museums to explore, and much, much more. By the end of this episode, listeners should have a better understanding of the new tools at their fingertips (literally!), how AI can indeed enhance the creative process, and the second-order effects of these innovations, like how creators are paid.

Since we’re just at the beginning of the AI era, this is just the beginning of our coverage as well.

Topics Covered:
00:00 - Intro
02:45 - Karen’s journey to content creator
06:29 - Creative unlocks for viral content
09:30 - The changing social media landscape
12:21 - Innovating with AI
15:23 - Unique AI tools available today
18:27 - How AI tools might differentiate
22:03 - Cosmo’s first AI-generated magazine cover
25:53 - Inpainting, outpainting, and the fungibility of artists
34:06 - AI enhancing the creative process
34:53 - The virality of optimism vs pessimism
41:01 - Turning attention into business
46:23 - IP and ownership in the age of AI
49:54 - The downward pricing pressure of AI
51:07 - Is generative AI still a gimmick?
57:50 - The adaptiveness of humans
1:03:17 0 The importance of AI ethics

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Timestamps!

00:00 - Intro
02:45 - Karen’s journey to content creator
06:29 - Creative unlocks for viral content
09:30 - The changing social media landscape
12:21 - Innovating with AI
15:23 - Unique AI tools available today
18:27 - How AI tools might differentiate
22:03 - Cosmo’s first AI-generated magazine cover
25:53 - Inpainting, outpainting, and the fungibility of artists
34:06 - AI enhancing the creative process
34:53 - The virality of optimism vs pessimism
41:01 - Turning attention into business
46:23 - IP and ownership in the age of AI
49:54 - The downward pricing pressure of AI
51:07 - Is generative AI still a gimmick?
57:50 - The adaptiveness of humans
1:03:17 0 The importance of AI ethics

[cmtrv]

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights, Karen, and for sharing the value you've discovered

[RonRullENG]

This interview is gold 🥇. Karen has a awesome charisma for interviews, i love it his view point of the world of AI. In 2023 this is an amazing podcast even better than other of this year more updated

[prosperwilliams]

❤ Karen, you are an inspiration !! Wonderful conversation Steph !!

[StephSmithio]

Loved having Karen on the podcast! And I cannot wait to experiment more with some of these tools. Next up for me: NeRF!

[nmbusmusic]

47:45-that dovetails with Stephenson/laniers value chain concept.

[qubit]

Please add links to AI tools discussed

[indieBen]

Listening to this in January 2023, indeed, it's already becoming part of the workflow. I sell prompts on promptbase and the demand is growing ( overall ) and it has just begun

[duudleDreamz]

Great video. Did you release the Neil Stephenson interview yet? Where do we find it?

[vladvrinceanu]

What are u using to record and mount this podcast? ( software wise)

[alpaykasal]

txt2img is a super power for creative directors, probably not so much for artists... For them, it may go as far a tool for inspiration.

[MrTCathcart]

Surprised she said that the comment/like equivalency meme was "smart engagement bait" -- seems pretty nihilistic to me.

[seedpass]

Praying to the algorithm wow that stuck a cord

[tycn]

"my wishlist is they cancel anyone on the internet that doesn't use AI the way I would use it because regulation... everywhere in the world. You know what just change the culture... of the world" 🤷

[hitheshshaji]

We have been researching the AI Creator Economy for the last 16 months and what we learned is that crypto is crucial to truly manage ownership, access and payments.