diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f23b1e1..0381450 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -152,10 +152,16 @@ Also one flag to use `--multi-gpus`
 
 [Aim](https://github.com/aimhubio/aim) is an open-source experiment tracker that logs your training runs, enables a beautiful UI to compare them and an API to query them programmatically.
 
-You can specify Aim logs directory with `--aim_repo` flag, otherwise logs will be stored in the current directory
+First you need to install `aim` with `pip`
 
 ```bash
-$ lightweight_gan --data ./path/to/images --image-size 512 --aim_repo ./path/to/logs/
+$ pip install aim
+```
+
+Next, you can specify Aim logs directory with `--aim_repo` flag, otherwise logs will be stored in the current directory
+
+```bash
+$ lightweight_gan --data ./path/to/images --image-size 512 --use-aim --aim_repo ./path/to/logs/
 ```
 
 Execute `aim up --repo ./path/to/logs/` to run Aim UI on your server.
diff --git a/lightweight_gan/cli.py b/lightweight_gan/cli.py
index 6527008..9a06f13 100644
--- a/lightweight_gan/cli.py
+++ b/lightweight_gan/cli.py
@@ -116,9 +116,10 @@ def train_from_folder(
     seed = 42,
     amp = False,
     show_progress = False,
-    use_aim = True,
+    use_aim = False,
     aim_repo = None,
-    aim_run_hash = None
+    aim_run_hash = None,
+    load_strict = True
 ):
     num_image_tiles = default(num_image_tiles, 4 if image_size > 512 else 8)
 
@@ -149,7 +150,8 @@ def train_from_folder(
         calculate_fid_every = calculate_fid_every,
         calculate_fid_num_images = calculate_fid_num_images,
         clear_fid_cache = clear_fid_cache,
-        amp = amp
+        amp = amp,
+        load_strict = load_strict
     )
 
     if generate:
diff --git a/lightweight_gan/lightweight_gan.py b/lightweight_gan/lightweight_gan.py
index 42b0f40..d4c5144 100644
--- a/lightweight_gan/lightweight_gan.py
+++ b/lightweight_gan/lightweight_gan.py
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 import os
-import aim
 import json
 import multiprocessing
 from random import random
@@ -961,6 +960,7 @@ def __init__(
         use_aim = True,
         aim_repo = None,
         aim_run_hash = None,
+        load_strict = True,
         *args,
         **kwargs
     ):
@@ -1038,14 +1038,23 @@ def __init__(
 
         self.syncbatchnorm = is_ddp
 
+        self.load_strict = load_strict
+
         self.amp = amp
         self.G_scaler = GradScaler(enabled = self.amp)
         self.D_scaler = GradScaler(enabled = self.amp)
 
         self.run = None
         self.hparams = hparams
+
         if self.is_main and use_aim:
-            self.run = aim.Run(run_hash=aim_run_hash, repo=aim_repo)
+            try:
+                import aim
+                self.aim = aim
+            except ImportError:
+                print('unable to import aim experiment tracker - please run `pip install aim` first')
+
+            self.run = self.aim.Run(run_hash=aim_run_hash, repo=aim_repo)
             self.run['hparams'] = hparams
 
     @property
@@ -1347,7 +1356,7 @@ def image_to_pil(image):
                 aim_images = []
                 for image in images:
                     im = image_to_pil(image)
-                    aim_images.append(aim.Image(im, caption=f'#{idx}'))
+                    aim_images.append(self.aim.Image(im, caption=f'#{idx}'))
 
                 self.run.track(value=aim_images, name='generated',
                                step=self.steps,
@@ -1362,7 +1371,7 @@ def image_to_pil(image):
             aim_images = []
             for idx, image in enumerate(generated_images):
                 im = image_to_pil(image)
-                aim_images.append(aim.Image(im, caption=f'#{idx}'))
+                aim_images.append(self.aim.Image(im, caption=f'#{idx}'))
 
             self.run.track(value=aim_images, name='generated',
                            step=self.steps,
@@ -1376,7 +1385,7 @@ def image_to_pil(image):
             aim_images = []
             for idx, image in enumerate(generated_images):
                 im = image_to_pil(image)
-                aim_images.append(aim.Image(im, caption=f'EMA #{idx}'))
+                aim_images.append(self.aim.Image(im, caption=f'EMA #{idx}'))
 
             self.run.track(value=aim_images, name='generated',
                            step=self.steps,
@@ -1597,7 +1606,7 @@ def load(self, num=-1, print_version=True):
             print(f"loading from version {load_data['version']}")
 
         try:
-            self.GAN.load_state_dict(load_data['GAN'])
+            self.GAN.load_state_dict(load_data['GAN'], strict = self.load_strict)
         except Exception as e:
             saved_version = load_data['version']
             print('unable to load save model. please try downgrading the package to the version specified by the saved model (to do so, just run `pip install lightweight-gan=={saved_version}`')
diff --git a/lightweight_gan/version.py b/lightweight_gan/version.py
index 66d9d1e..eed48b7 100644
--- a/lightweight_gan/version.py
+++ b/lightweight_gan/version.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = '0.22.1'
+__version__ = '0.22.3'
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index aaee645..8ec6475 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -33,8 +33,7 @@
     'retry',
     'torch>=1.10',
     'torchvision',
-    'tqdm',
-    'aim'
+    'tqdm'
   ],
   classifiers=[
     'Development Status :: 4 - Beta',