Nicholai
86accadc28
Version evolution (SL 1.0→2.0→3.0), team background, no patents, NVIDIA DiffusionRenderer as open-source competitor, dataset landscape (POLAR, SynthLight, etc.), botocore/AWS SDK in privacy app, MetaHuman EULA fix, user data controversy, and DiffusionRenderer ComfyUI integration across all docs.
340 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
340 lines
13 KiB
Markdown
# Beeble Marketing Claims Archive
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Exact quotes from Beeble's public-facing pages, archived January 2026.
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These are provided for reference so readers can compare marketing
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language against the technical findings documented in this repository.
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All quotes are reproduced verbatim. Emphasis (bold) is preserved as
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it appears on the original pages.
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## beeble.ai/beeble-studio
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Page title: "Production-Grade 4K AI Relighting, Fully On-Device"
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Main heading: "4K Relighting Fully on Your Machine"
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Subheading: "DESKTOP APP FOR LOCAL PROCESSING"
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Feature description (Local AI Model section):
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> Run our most advanced **Video-to-PBR model, SwitchLight 3**, directly
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> on your desktop. Perfect for professionals who need local workflow.
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Video-to-Assets feature card:
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> **PBR, Alpha & Depth Map Generation**
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> Powered by **SwitchLight 3.0**, convert images and videos into
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> **full PBR passes with alpha and depth maps** for seamless
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> relighting, background removal, and advanced compositing.
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FAQ on the same page ("What is Beeble Studio?"):
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> **Beeble Studio** is our desktop application that runs entirely on
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> your local hardware. It provides:
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> - Local GPU Processing: Process up to 4K and 1 hour using your
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> NVIDIA GPU
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> - Unlimited Rendering: No credit consumption for Video-to-VFX
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> - Complete Privacy: Your files never leave your machine
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>
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> Same AI Models: Access to SwitchLight 3.0 and all core features
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Source: https://beeble.ai/beeble-studio
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## beeble.ai/research/switchlight-3-0-is-here
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Published: November 5, 2025
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Headline: "Introducing the best Video-to-PBR model in the world"
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Opening paragraph:
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> SwitchLight 3.0 is the best Video-to-PBR model in the world. It
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> delivers unmatched quality in generating physically based rendering
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> (PBR) passes from any video, setting a new standard for VFX
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> professionals and filmmakers who demand true production-level
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> relighting.
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On the "true video model" claim:
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> **True Video Model:** For the first time, SwitchLight is a **true
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> video model** that processes multiple frames simultaneously. Earlier
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> versions relied on single-frame image processing followed by a
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> separate deflicker step. In version 3.0, temporal consistency is
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> built directly into the model, delivering smoother, more stable
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> results while preserving sharp detail.
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On training data:
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> **10x Larger Training Set:** Trained on a dataset ten times bigger,
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> SwitchLight 3.0 captures a broader range of lighting conditions,
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> materials, and environments for more realistic results.
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Detail quality claim:
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> SwitchLight 3.0 achieves a new level of detail and visual clarity.
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> Compared to 2.0, it captures **finer facial definition, intricate
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> fabric wrinkles, and sophisticated surface patterns** with far
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> greater accuracy.
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Motion handling:
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> SwitchLight 3.0 is a **true end-to-end video model** that
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> understands motion natively. Unlike SwitchLight 2.0, which relied
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> on an image model and post-smoothing, it eliminates **flicker and
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> ghosting** even in extreme motion, shaking cameras, or vibrating
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> subjects.
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Source: https://beeble.ai/research/switchlight-3-0-is-here
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## docs.beeble.ai/help/faq
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"Is Beeble's AI trained responsibly?":
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> **Yes.** Beeble's proprietary models--such as **SwitchLight**--are
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> trained only on ethically sourced, agreement-based datasets. We
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> never use scraped or unauthorized data.
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>
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> When open-source models are included, we choose them
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> carefully--only those with published research papers that disclose
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> their training data and carry valid commercial-use licenses.
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"What is Video-to-VFX?":
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> **Video-to-VFX** uses our foundation model, **SwitchLight 3.0**,
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> and SOTA AI models to convert your footage into VFX-ready assets
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> by generating:
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> - **PBR Maps:** Normal, Base color, Metallic, Roughness, Specular
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> for relighting
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> - **Alpha:** foreground matte for background replacement
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> - **Depth Map:** For compositing and 3D integration
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Source: https://docs.beeble.ai/help/faq
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## docs.beeble.ai/beeble-studio/video-to-vfx
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Product documentation page:
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> **Video-to-VFX** uses our foundation model, SwitchLight 3.0, to
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> convert your footage into VFX-ready assets.
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Key Features section:
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> **PBR, Alpha & Depth Pass Generation**
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> Powered by **SwitchLight 3.0**. Convert footage into full PBR
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> passes with alpha and depth maps.
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Source: https://docs.beeble.ai/beeble-studio/video-to-vfx
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## Investor and press coverage
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### Seed funding (July 2024)
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Beeble raised a $4.75M seed round at a reported $25M valuation. The
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round was led by Basis Set Ventures and Fika Ventures. At the time
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of funding, the company had approximately 7 employees.
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Press coverage from the funding round:
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> Beeble [...] has raised $4.75 million in seed funding to develop
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> its **foundational model** for AI-powered relighting in video.
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Source: TechCrunch and other outlets, July 2024
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Investor quotes (public press releases):
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Basis Set Ventures described SwitchLight as a "world-class
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foundational model in lighting" in their investment rationale.
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The term "foundational model" is significant. In the AI industry,
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it implies a large-scale, general-purpose model trained from scratch
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on diverse data--models like GPT-4, DALL-E, or Stable Diffusion.
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The technical evidence suggests Beeble's pipeline is a collection of
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open-source models (some used directly, others used as architectural
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building blocks) with proprietary weights trained on domain-specific
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data. Whether this constitutes a "foundational model" is a
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characterization question, but it is a characterization that was
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used to secure investment.
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As of January 2026, the company appears to have approximately 9
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employees.
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## Version history
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| Version | Approximate date | Key changes |
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|---------|-----------------|-------------|
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| SwitchLight (mobile app) | 2022-2023 | Photo relighting app for iOS, 3M+ downloads claimed. Selfie/portrait focus. |
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| SwitchLight 1.0 | Late 2023 - early 2024 | First VFX tool. Required alpha mask input. Isolated humans only. Architecture described in CVPR 2024 paper. Per-frame processing. |
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| SwitchLight 2.0 | June 30, 2025 | "Complete architecture rebuild." No alpha mask required. Full-scene PBR maps (not just isolated subjects). Claimed 10x larger model, 13x more training data than 1.0. Still per-frame with post-processing deflicker. 2K resolution limit (cloud). 8-bit PNG output. User data training controversy (see below). |
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| SwitchLight 3.0 | November 5, 2025 | Marketed as "true video model" with multi-frame processing. Claimed 10x more training data than 2.0 (130x more than 1.0). 4K resolution support. 16-bit EXR output. Desktop app (Beeble Studio) launched for local GPU processing. Paid users exempt from data training. |
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Source: beeble.ai/research/switchlight-2-0-is-here,
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beeble.ai/research/switchlight-3-0-is-here
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## Team and leadership
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Beeble was founded in 2022 in Seoul, South Korea by five co-founders
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who previously worked at the AI research and machine learning team of
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Krafton Inc., a South Korean game publisher.
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**CEO: Hoon Kim**
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- B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from KAIST (2012-2019)
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- Research scientist at Lunit (medical AI, 2019-2020)
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- Deep learning research scientist at Krafton Inc. (voice synthesis
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team leader, 2020-2022)
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- 6 peer-reviewed papers at ICLR, AAAI, ICML workshop
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- Prior research was in autonomous driving (sim-to-real transfer,
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vehicle collision prediction) and voice synthesis--not in computer
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vision, relighting, or PBR decomposition
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- The SwitchLight paper is his first publication in relighting
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Source: gnsrla12.github.io/About-myself/
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**Paper co-author: Sanghyun Woo** (last/senior author on the CVPR paper)
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- Ph.D. from KAIST, currently Senior Research Scientist at Google
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DeepMind
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- Previously Faculty Fellow at NYU Courant (hosted by Saining Xie)
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- Creator of CBAM (Convolutional Block Attention Module, ECCV 2018)
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with 34,000+ citations
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- Co-author on ConvNeXt V2 (CVPR 2023), Cambrian-1 (NeurIPS 2024 Oral)
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- Listed as affiliated with NYU on the SwitchLight paper, not Beeble
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- Whether his involvement extends beyond the CVPR 2024 paper is
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unknown
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Source: sites.google.com/view/sanghyunwoo/
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**Team size:** 9 employees as of early 2026. With 5 co-founders, this
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means approximately 4 non-founder employees.
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## Products and pricing
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**Beeble Cloud** (web app): Credit-based processing. Free tier
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(15-second clips), Creator $19/month, Professional $75/month.
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**Beeble Studio** (desktop app): Local GPU processing.
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Indie $504/year ($42/month, for studios under $200K revenue),
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Standard $3,000/year ($250/month).
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**SwitchLight API**: Available at switchlight-api.beeble.ai for
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developer integration.
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**Mobile app**: SwitchLight photo editor on iOS, 3M+ downloads
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claimed. This is a consumer selfie relighting app, not a professional
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VFX tool.
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**Plugins**: Nuke, Blender, Unreal Engine integration.
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The original SwitchLight Studio product was shut down and merged into
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Beeble Studio. The switchlight-studio.beeble.ai domain displays a
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"Closing" notice.
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Source: beeble.ai/pricing, beeble.ai/pricing-cloud
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## User data training controversy
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When SwitchLight 2.0 launched in mid-2025, CG Channel reported that
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Beeble's terms of use allowed user-uploaded content to be used for AI
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training. This caused significant backlash in the VFX community, where
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studios are protective of proprietary footage.
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Beeble responded by changing policy: paid subscribers' content is no
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longer used for training (as of the SwitchLight 3.0 launch in November
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2025). Free tier uploads may still be used. The Beeble Studio desktop
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app was positioned as the privacy-focused alternative, with all
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processing running locally.
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Source: cgchannel.com/2025/11/beeble-launches-switchlight-3-0/
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## Interview statements
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In a September 2025 interview with Digital Production magazine
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("We have to talk about Switchlight 2.0"), CEO Hoon Kim stated:
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> At its core, it's a neural net doing the heavy lifting.
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When asked for architecture details, he said he "couldn't share more
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details beyond that."
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On training data, Kim stated all data was "created in-house using
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scans of real humans and objects" with "no movies, films, or
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third-party content used."
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Source: digitalproduction.com/2025/09/05/we-have-to-talk-about-switchlight-2-0/
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## Production credits
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Boxel Studio used SwitchLight for VFX relighting sequences on
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*Superman & Lois*. This appears to be Beeble's most prominent
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production credit.
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Source: boxelstudio.com/beeble-switchlight/
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## Patent filings
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No patent applications or grants were found for Beeble Inc. or any of
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its founders related to SwitchLight, relighting, or inverse rendering.
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Searches were conducted on USPTO Patent Public Search and Google
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Patents for "Beeble," "Hoon Kim," "SwitchLight," and "portrait
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relighting neural network."
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Note: Patent applications have an 18-month publication delay from
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filing, so recent applications may not yet be visible.
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Searched: January 2026
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## CVPR paper reception
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The SwitchLight paper was accepted as a CVPR 2024 highlight paper
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(top ~10% of accepted papers out of 11,532 submissions). Beeble
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claimed perfect 5/5/5 reviewer scores.
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The paper is cited as "state-of-the-art" in IC-Light's ICLR 2025
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paper and is referenced in the Awesome-Relighting curated list.
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No public criticisms of the paper were found, though CVPR reviews
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are confidential.
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The paper has no associated code release. The beeble-ai/SwitchLight-
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Studio GitHub repository contains only desktop application scripts
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and integration helpers, not model code. For a CVPR highlight paper,
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the absence of a code release is notable.
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The arXiv version is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (non-commercial).
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Source: x.com/beeble_ai/status/1763564054529159548
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## Community presence
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As of January 2026, there is minimal Reddit discussion of Beeble or
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SwitchLight on r/vfx, r/compositing, or r/NukeVFX. For a tool that
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has been used on a major television production (Superman & Lois) and
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claims 3M mobile app downloads, the lack of organic community
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discussion is notable.
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There is a separate, unrelated company called "Beeble" (based in
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Latvia, offering encrypted email and cloud storage) that has an
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AppSumo listing with poor reviews. This is not the same as Beeble AI
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but creates brand confusion.
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## Notable patterns
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Beeble's marketing consistently attributes the entire Video-to-VFX
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pipeline to SwitchLight 3.0. The Beeble Studio page states that PBR,
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alpha, and depth map generation are all "Powered by SwitchLight 3.0."
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The FAQ is the only place where Beeble acknowledges the use of
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open-source models, stating they "choose them carefully" and select
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those with "valid commercial-use licenses." However, the FAQ does not
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name any of the specific open-source models used, nor does it clarify
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which pipeline stages use open-source components versus SwitchLight.
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The overall marketing impression is that SwitchLight is responsible
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for all output passes. The technical reality, as documented in this
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repository's analysis, is that background removal (alpha) and depth
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estimation are produced by open-source models used off the shelf,
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and the PBR decomposition models appear to be architecturally built
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from open-source frameworks (segmentation_models_pytorch, timm
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backbones) with proprietary trained weights. See
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[docs/REPORT.md](../docs/REPORT.md) for the full analysis.
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