  This note explains an approach to producing examples of 'generalized
Kuga-Satake theory' based on establishing special cases of Simpson's conjecture
that rigid local systems are motivic. This strategy is then carried out, using
work of Bogner and Reiter, in a low-dimensional example, producing the first
non-trivial examples of generalized Kuga-Satake theory outside of the Tannakian
category of motives generated by abelian varieties. For a more robust
collection of examples, see the sequel "Generalized Kuga-Satake theory and
rigid local systems, II: rigid Hecke eigensheaves."
