Freepik Unveils Open AI Image Generator Trained on Commercially Licensed Data

On Tuesday, Freepik, the popular online graphic design platform, revealed F Lite, a new "open" AI image generation model. The company claims that F Lite was trained exclusively on commercially licensed, "safe-for-work" images, setting it apart from many other AI models that often incorporate unlicensed, copyrighted content. F Lite consists of approximately 10 billion parameters, which are the internal components that define its capabilities. Developed in collaboration with AI startup Fal.ai, the model was trained over two months using 64 Nvidia H100 GPUs—a significant computational investment. F Lite adds to the growing list of generative AI models that rely on licensed data. This approach addresses the mounting legal challenges faced by AI companies, such as OpenAI and Midjourney, which have been targets of copyright infringement lawsuits due to their use of unlicensed content for training. To cater to different user needs, Freepik has released two versions of F Lite: the standard version and the texture version. The standard variant is designed to be more predictable and faithful to the input prompts, making it ideal for users seeking consistent results. On the other hand, the texture version is more experimental, prone to errors, but excels in generating detailed textures and creative compositions. Here is an example of an image generated by the standard F Lite model using the prompt "A person standing in front of a sunset, in majestic surroundings": Image Credits: Freepik Freepik does not claim that F Lite outperforms leading image generators like Midjourney's V7 or Black Forest Labs' Flux family. Instead, the company aims to make F Lite freely available to developers, encouraging them to customize and enhance the model. However, running F Lite comes with its own challenges; it requires a GPU with at least 24GB of VRAM, making it suitable primarily for users with robust hardware setups. Several other major players in the tech industry are also developing AI models using licensed data. These include Adobe, Bria, Getty Images, Moonvalley, and Shutterstock. As the legal landscape surrounding AI-generated content continues to evolve, the market for such models may expand dramatically. The launch of F Lite marks an important step toward fostering transparency and ethical practices in AI image generation. By focusing on licensed data, Freepik hopes to contribute to a future where creators' rights are respected and users can trust the origins of the images they generate.