When Colin Kaepernick took a knee during a preseason game ahead of the 2016 NFL season, the world ran with narratives about his decision. Today, he has a platform that is helping people who look like him share their stories.
Taking the stage at the 2024 AFROTECH™ Conference on Nov. 14, in Houston, TX, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback beamed with pride as he spoke to eager attendees about his platform Lumi, which uses artificial intelligence to provide marginalized creators with opportunities for independence so they can share the stories that oftentimes live in their heads with no place to go.
“I’ve done the graphic novel. I’ve done a couple of children’s books, and typically, those processes from when a contract is signed to when it is released, is over two years,” Kaepernick told Brian Dixon, managing partner of Kapor Capital, during a fireside chat titled “AI’s Role in Revolutionizing the Future of Storytelling.” “Those projects need six-figure investments to get off the ground, and then, on the back of that, typically, is 12 to 18 months before you become profitable. So, you’re looking at three and a half years, approximately, before you become profitable on a project that shouldn’t take that long.”
He continued, “Now, you add in all the elements of who gets to tell stories, what they look like, and we see what we don’t represent in those spaces. So for us, we looked at, how we can create this solution for any creator to be able to come on the platform and tell the story they want to, so when you come on, you can just have an idea of the story you want to tell. We’ll help you with character development. We’ll help you create your character. We’ll help you ideate and create your script. We’ll help you create the imagery for the story, and then we’ll help you put all of that together. That finished product will be digitally available as you’ll be able to physically publish that and merchandise it on the platform.”
The goal with Lumi is to create an all-in-one solution that will help people have full autonomy over telling the stories they desire to tell, he said.
As a civil rights activist, Kaepernick is keen to move the culture forward. For the aspiring founders and creatives in the crowd, he urged them to hold tight to their integrity, rather than jumping blindly into deals with investors who do not align with the vision and purpose of their ideas.
“I want to touch on one final piece there is for the founders out there, also who our investors are is extremely important,” Kaepernick said. “All money is not good money. I think being able to sit here and have this conversation, we are very fortunate to have incredible investors on this journey with us.”
He added, “We know there’s bias within AI models today, and that exists because what historically has happened and how we’ve been excluded has caused those models to be biased. So, as we think about building a future within AI, as we think about building new stories for the future and how we’re represented and how we show up, we also have to be in the room building it. If there’s anybody out here who wants to be on that journey with this building, please send us your resume. We’d love to check you out to have a conversation and see what we can do.”
