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Thousands of stories have been written about former NFL quarterback and polite right militant Colin Kaepernick . If anyone knows a affair or two about lose control of your own narrative , it ’s him . Now Kaepernick is launch an AI storytelling platform , Lumi , to help creators severalize and own their stories .
If you said , “ Huh ? ” when reading that , I would n’t blame you . But the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has more expertise here than you might realize . First off , Kaepernick says this is a solvent for storytellers , and generative AI is but a putz to get there . Kaepernick spent the last 10 year build a media party , Kaepernick Media , which exposed him to some of the medium industry ’s deeply entrenched problems . He ’s also served on Medium ’s board since 2020 . Lumi attempts to address issuing like gatekeeping , yield price , and creatives losing ownership of their work . The root is not revolutionary — an AI subscription , a dispersion platform , and a revenue parcel plan — but the execution might be .
Kaepernick made newspaper headline during the 2016 NFL time of year , not for his passer valuation , but for kneel during the interior hymn before football game games . It was a protest to civil injustices against Black mass , but many engage his kneeling to be aweless . At the sentence , NFL Commissioner Roger Goodellsaid , “ I do n’t necessarily agree with what he ’s doing , ” while others , includingformer President Trump , said worse . After leaving the 49ers , Kaepernick struggle to land with another team despite pass San Francisco to a Super Bowl a few geezerhood earlier , extend to suspicions he ’d been ostracise by NFL owners .
“ On my own story — the impact and deduction of other people creating their narratives around it and telling it from their linear perspective — why should that be the guinea pig ? ” said Kaepernick in an interview with TechCrunch . “ There are multiplication in the past where I could have jump out and told my taradiddle in different ways , but I seek to be paying attention of how I ’m building things and why I ’m doing them . If it ’s something that is just self - concerned or ego - fulfilling , that does n’t particularly interest me . ”
But with Lumi , Kaepernick sees an chance to gift storytellers more loosely . He may release a story on the political platform himself , but that ’s not quite the point . Kaepernick ’s difficultness with the media industry have greatly bear upon his own life , but now he ’s using the lesson to create a solution larger than himself .
On Wednesday , Lumi is emerge from stealth with $ 4 million in germ funding conduce by Seven Seven Six . The company is also allowing Maker to sign up for its beta edition today .
Cool! So what is it?
Kaepernick finally sees Lumi as an end - to - end medium company — venturing into video finally — propose creator tool , a distribution political platform , publication and merchandising services . For now , Lumi is start out small with Divine tools for comic book illustrator , specifically the Nipponese style , manga .
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The first thing creators do when storytelling with Lumi is chew the fat the website . There , you could create your report ’s principal fictional character by describing their backstory , forcible characteristics , and other trait into a text edition - base AI example . That direct to an AI image generation of your fictitious character , which illustrator could use as inspiration or the real part imagery to build a level around .
Then Lumi ’s AI help oneself you plan out your narration , enquire questions about story structure , protagonists and opponent , and themes and help to generate a script . Then you ’ll get to the final production page , where all the imagery , dialogue and captions are formatted into a pictorial novel . you’re able to then publish your tale and a digital version will go live on the front end of Lumi ’s internet site .
But Lumi also wants to make strong-arm publishing and merchandising easier for creators . Kaepernick says his party will deal all the business logistics so Almighty can focalise on storytelling , making Lumi a one - stop workshop for all a Lord ’s needs .
Creators can choose from three monthly subscription grade — $ 20 , $ 40 , and $ 75 — with more expensive tier unlock advanced features for Jehovah . Kaepernick wants to share the revenue from these stories , forcible copy , and trade with the creators .
Kaepernick ’s plan is rivet around make Lumi an amusement chopine for manga fans . The approximation is that there ’s some time value baked into getting a story on Lumi ’s internet site , but that only works if people are coming to the destination .
No stranger to Silicon Valley
Lumi is the first inauguration Kaepernick has founded , but the former QB has been backer vest since 2017 and say TechCrunch he has more than 50 investments to date . Kaepernick also sits on theboard of digital publishing platform Mediumand has since 2020 . There , he ’s worked alongside influential Silicon Valley investors — including fellow board penis such as a16z carbon monoxide gas - founder Ben Horowitz , Medium co - founder Evan Williams , and Heretic Ventures beginner Mariam Naficy — who he says have shaped his business sense as a tech founder .
“ I do n’t think I woke up one day and was like , ‘ Hey , I ’m gon na construct a technical school troupe , ’ ” said Kaepernick . “ But we were try out to solve this trouble for Maker that we ’re engaging with . It just so happens that the best elbow room for us to do this is by building a tech companionship . ”
Kaepernick says he ’s not worried about wading into Silicon Valley more publicly as a beginner at this politically charge minute , as some Silicon Valley leader have publicly endorsed Trump . Kaepernick has been a polite right wing militant for about a 10 , lead the Know Your Rights Camp since 2016 , whose mission is to “ advance the liberation and well - being of Black and Brown community . ” With Lumi , Kaepernick says he ’s just focused on product .
“ I do n’t have any care enter the blank space during this time , ” said Kaepernick . “ My thinking is , if we are serving our end drug user and Lord in the best way potential , then we will have a successful troupe and everything else will take care of itself . ”
Lumi aims to lift up voices that are n’t have a sufficient platform today . Kaepernick ’s business will use a few different foundational AI models , but he ’s exquisite to plow the biases that have chevy LLM for age .
“ AI models as they exist today , they ’re expire to have the biases of the past built into them . We ’ve understand that , we know that , ” says Kaepernick . “ When we think about narratives and how people are represented , AI is going to accelerate thing exponentially . That can be both exponentially good and spoilt . Our hope here is that we build something to produce that better course forward for narrator and Creator .
