Colin Kaepernick Launches AI Start-Up, Remains Unretired From NFL

Colin Kaepernick is entering the artificial intelligence space. 

The former 49ers quarterback—who hasn’t played in the NFL since 2016, when he began kneeling for the national anthem—is launching Lumi Story AI, a product designed to help creative workers. 

Kaepernick went unsigned when he became a free agent the offseason after the anthem firestorm. In 2017, he filed a grievance against the NFL and its 32 owners for collusion to keep him out of the league based on his political beliefs. The grievance resulted in a settlement, which was finalized in 2019, reportedly for less than $10 million. Later that year, the NFL set up a workout for Kaepernick in Atlanta, but he ended up doing his own workout because of a dispute over a liability waiver the league wanted him to sign. 

Now 36, Kaepernick has since started various business ventures such as Kaepernick Publishing and the Know Your Rights Camp, a youth education initiative. He also had a failed SPAC that ceased operations in 2022.

“It allows us to help fill in the skill gaps of creators,” Kaepernick told The Wall Street Journal, saying the idea came from conversations in the field. “We are now building in that direction to try to open that up and democratize storytelling.”

Kaepernick says the company is designed to aid writers, not replace them, as is widely feared with many AI products.

Lumi is backed by Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm run by Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, which provided the majority of the $4 million in seed funding. 

Lumi launched a beta version Wednesday focused on comic books. 

Despite leading the 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2013, Kaepernick has been unsigned for the past seven seasons. He has not retired and continues to train in case an opportunity arises to return to the NFL. 

After the Jets lost starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers four snaps into their season last September, Kaepernick wrote a letter to Jets owner Woody Johnson requesting the team sign him to their practice squad to help with their quarterback depth. Instead the team signed former Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian.