The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 32 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Karen X Cheng: Low-Effort Viral Creators Fail to Secure Major Brand Deals
“The people who are putting out low effort content all the time, getting millions of views, they're not the ones getting hired by like, Major respected brands. You know, they're not actually getting great opportunities off of their follower count.”
Karen X Cheng Predicts AI Will Quickly Automate Prompt Engineering
“Well, I don't think the answer is focus on prompt engineering because I wouldn't be surprised if in a very short amount of time, AI gets extremely good at Prompt engineering. And so those people are less, you know, relevant.”
Cheng: Generative AI will significantly lower the barrier to becoming an artist
“Okay, so I think that what this is gonna do, what AI art is gonna do is it's going to Significantly lower the barrier to entry to become an artist.”
Karen X Cheng: Behind-the-Scenes Content Drives Viral Video Growth
“The unlock for me was actually sharing my behind the scenes and that was it. And so I would like, I, before I would just show these cool shots and I'd be like, look at this cool shot, you know, and then maybe I would describe how I did in the caption and like …”
Karen X Cheng: Creators Now Design for Algorithms Over Human Taste
“We're almost no longer designing ourselves for like human taste, but we're designing ourselves for like the algorithm.”
Karen X Cheng: Media Incentives Will Inevitably Drive Negative AI Coverage
“There's gonna be every gravitational force for the media is gonna push towards the bad because that is what's gonna get more clicks and engagements and views.”
Karen X Cheng: The Traditional Single-Lifetime Career Model Is Officially Dead
“The model that humans had for much of humanity, which is that you could kind of choose a career and then have that career for life. That's gone. We are at the, like, the last dying grasping breaths of those days.”
Karen X Cheng: Photorealistic Deepfakes Will Soon Reach Mass Adoption
“We're already there on edge cases, and we'll pretty soon be there for mass cases.”
Karen X Cheng: Hardware Media Authentication Will Begin in Political Messaging
“It would have to be the hardware level, and I think it will be first adapted in, like, really high stakes scenarios where the veracity of something is extremely important. So, for example, in, like, political messaging, maybe they'll have, like, a very specifi…”
Cheng: Different creators yield radically different outputs from identical AI prompts
“I think this is the perfect case study for like, hey, different humans get very different results with AI.”
Karen X Cheng: Video Virality Shifted From Tech Press to Algorithms
“So back in, like, 2000, like, 12, up until around 2016, you could make videos go viral just by coming up with something clever that would be a good headline, cold emailing, like, 300 reporters, getting them to write about it, and then it would almost guarantee…”
Karen X Cheng: iPhone Camera Tricks Are Saturated, AI Video Is Open
“It is very, very hard to think of something clever or new with an iPhone camera trick. TikTok transition. Very, very, very hard. But with the AI stuff, it's like, this is just Free for all right now.”
Karen X Cheng: AI Tools Are Specialized Instruments, Not Human Replacements
“AI in the mass media, there's sort of this misconception or perception that AI is just this like all powerful thing that's going to replace humans. But I think a more interesting way to think of it is that they are tools and each one is a specific tool for a s…”
Karen X Cheng: Facetune Fixes Face Distortion Artifacts From AI Generators
“You can run them through Facetune, the app that all influencers use, and that'll make, that'll fix it.”
Karen X Cheng Predicts AI Platform Consolidation via Startup Acquisitions
“Most companies will have different strengths, and then they'll continue to be able to differentiate by sort of specializing in that, but I do imagine that some of these companies are gonna buy other companies, and then so they'll like, you know, kind of have m…”
Karen X Cheng: AI Art Will Significantly Lower Barriers for Artists
“Okay, so I think that what this is gonna do, what AI art is gonna do is it's going to Significantly lower the barrier to entry to become an artist.”
Karen X Cheng: Standout Creators Will Still Emerge in AI Era
“There will still be the standouts and the extraordinary people because they're going to be the ones who are finding like different or creative or innovative ways to do it. There's, you know, as much innovation as there is, there's always going to be the abilit…”
Karen X Cheng: Generative AI Creation Feels Like Bidirectional Collaboration
“It's hundred percent the second one. It does feel like a collaboration, and so you get, you oftentimes get things you don't expect, And you're like, oh, I didn't think of that. Let me go down that rabbit hole now more.”
Karen X Cheng: Positive Content Builds Trust Better Than Viral Clickbait
“You can make something go viral, but it's a one-off, and people aren't necessarily going to be inspired to continue to hear from you. Or you can continue to put out positive content and each piece of positive content isn't going to get as many views, but you w…”
Karen X Cheng: High-Quality Creators With 20,000 Followers Can Generate High Earnings
“I know people who make incredible content. They only have like 20,000 followers. They're making bank.”
Karen X Cheng: View and Like Counts Are Flawed Content Indicators
“People put so much value on the number of likes and the number of views because it is the only number we can really see and judge ourselves by, and so it's like we've been trained since Like kindergarten to put value in like the number judgment, you know, when…”
Karen X Cheng: AI Will Create Downward Price Pressure for Most Creators
“And so what's probably going to end up happening, unfortunately, is that there will be like the more well-known people who can still charge higher rates, but then for the vast majority of people, like there's such insane downwards pressure on it”
Karen X Cheng: Corporate AI Will Shift From PR to Workflows in 2023
“In twenty-twenty-two, it is most certainly a gimmick and a headline grabber. It is like, let's be innovative. Let's be first. Let's be on top of this. I would imagine in 20, 23, the answer to that will be probably be different. People will actually start using…”
Karen X Cheng: Backlash Against Early AI Adopters Will Fade Over Time
“So I think, you know, the first few, you know, the leaders go, the arrows attack the leaders, right? So I think the first few people who are going to start using AI are going to get backlash, but it's going to get less and less and less and less until it's acc…”
Karen X Cheng: Creators Altering Content With AI Must Disclose Changes
“Okay, so, I mean, it's very hard to be the arbiter of that, but for example, like, deception is bad, right? So when you're altering things, you need to disclose what you altered and how.”
Karen X Cheng: Media Will Adopt Nutrition-Label-Style Disclosures for AI
“I think that will be developed. I think it will be necessary and it will happen, and I think it will be very similar to, like, nutrition facts on, like, all the food. Like, it's a universal standard that we have nutrition facts, and so there will need to be so…”
Karen X Cheng: Media Authentication Will Precede Government Regulation
“Regulation will catch up, but I actually think it will be somewhat self-regulated in the sense that some people will need the, will have the need to show that what they do is true and not altered. And then there will be companies that pop up that say, okay, th…”
Karen X Cheng: Pitch Creative Ideas to Clients Who Accept Them Unaltered
“In the past I would have had like a dream client or a dream, like something, but I've actually learned over time that it's not about like which celebrity you can get or which brand you can get, but it's for me, I've learned it's actually about doing my best id…”
Karen X Cheng Gained 300,000 Followers From a Ceiling Fan Camera Trick
“There was one video actually where I attached like a phone to a ceiling fan and then made that into like a matrix bullet time effect. And I got. 300,000 followers from that one video.”
Karen X Cheng: NeRF Handles Lighting and Mirrors Better Than Photogrammetry
“Nerf is a way to use any camera, like your phone, to scan a scene, and then all of a sudden you have this beautiful, three-D, like, scan of it, and the, what's interesting about it is it's different than photogrammetry because it can handle Like, light. It's b…”