Freepik, the popular online graphic design platform, has announced the launch of its new AI image model, F Lite, which was trained exclusively on commercially licensed, safe-for-work images. This new model is part of a growing trend in the AI industry toward using licensed data to address concerns over copyright infringement.
F Lite is built with around 10 billion parameters, which are the internal components that define the model’s functionality. Developed in collaboration with AI startup Fal.ai, F Lite was trained over two months using 64 Nvidia H100 GPUs, according to Freepik’s announcement.
A Growing Collection of Licensed Data Models
F Lite joins a select group of generative AI models that are trained specifically on licensed data. The use of licensed data is becoming increasingly important, especially amid ongoing copyright lawsuits against major AI companies, including OpenAI and Midjourney. These lawsuits argue that using massive amounts of content—often copyrighted materials—from public sources without compensating the original creators violates intellectual property rights.
Unlike models that utilize large public datasets, F Lite was trained on an internal dataset of around 80 million images, ensuring that all content used is commercially licensed and suitable for work.
Two Versions of F Lite for Diverse Needs
Freepik has released two versions of the F Lite model: standard and texture. The standard version is more predictable and prompt-faithful, making it suitable for users who need consistent results. The texture version, on the other hand, is more error-prone but excels at generating better textures and creative compositions, offering more flexibility for users with artistic needs.
Although Freepik has made F Lite available to the public, it doesn’t claim that the model is superior to other industry-leading image generators like Midjourney’s V7 or Black Forest Labs’ Flux. Instead, the company aims to provide a model that developers can build upon and refine. F Lite is designed to be open, allowing users to adapt it to their specific needs and create unique customizations.
However, running F Lite is no simple task. The model requires a GPU with at least 24GB of VRAM, making it a more specialized tool for developers with the appropriate hardware.
Freepik is not the only company focusing on the use of licensed data for generative AI. Adobe, Getty Images, Moonvalley, Bria, and Shutterstock are also developing AI models based on licensed datasets. As the legal landscape surrounding AI copyright lawsuits continues to evolve, it’s likely that the market for AI models trained on licensed data will expand rapidly.
For companies and developers interested in ethical and legally compliant generative AI tools, F Lite presents a valuable option in an increasingly crowded market.
