Figma, the popular design and prototyping platform, has put the brakes on its shiny new AI feature, “Make Designs.” It turns out the tool was creating layouts that looked a bit too much like Apple’s Weather app, sparking a wave of criticism and concern about originality and ethics in AI-driven design.
The trouble started shortly after Figma’s Config conference, where they introduced “Make Designs” with great fanfare. The idea was simple: users could whip up UI designs from basic text prompts, saving loads of time in the early design stages.
But Andy Allen, the CEO of NotBoring Software, soon noticed something fishy. His team found that the tool was churning out designs eerily similar to Apple’s Weather app. Andy didn’t keep this to himself—he took to X (formerly Twitter) to share his findings, warning other designers to double-check the AI-generated outputs to avoid any potential legal mess.
Dylan Field, Figma’s CEO, quickly jumped into the fray to clarify the situation. He assured everyone that “Make Designs” wasn’t trained on Figma’s own content or any specific app designs.
Instead, the tool used off-the-shelf large language models from OpenAI and Amazon’s Titan Image Generator G1, paired with a custom design system Figma had put together. Dylan admitted they rushed to meet the conference deadline, which meant the quality assurance process wasn’t as thorough as it should have been.
Kris Rasmussen, Figma’s CTO, shed more light on the technical side. He explained to the Verge that Figma didn’t do any specific training for the AI models used in “Make Designs.” These models were third-party tools integrated with Figma’s custom design system. The problem? This design system didn’t have enough variability, leading to outputs that too closely resembled existing apps like Apple’s Weather app.
This whole episode has opened up a broader discussion about the use of AI in creative fields. Designers are understandably worried about how AI tools might impact their work, with concerns ranging from job displacement to unintentional plagiarism.
The “Make Designs” controversy has highlighted the fine line between using AI for efficiency and maintaining originality and ethical standards in design.
Dylan has promised a thorough review of the design systems used in “Make Designs” to prevent any future hiccups. The feature will stay disabled until they’re confident it meets higher standards of quality and originality. In the meantime, other AI features in Figma’s platform are still available in beta, though you’ll need to join a waitlist to get in on the action.
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