Figma CEO Dylan Field announced that his company would temporarily disable its new “Make Design” AI feature.
The decision comes after allegations that the tool was reproducing designs strikingly similar to Apple’s Weather app, raising concerns about whether Figma’s training data contains copyrighted content.
If Figma’s tools contain copyright material, then so will its outputs. That could leave users vulnerable to legal issues.
Figma is a collaborative web app and recently rolled out its “Make Design” features at its recent Config conference. This includes several generative AI-powered tools powered by both off-the-shelf AI models and Figma’s own systems. It offers:
- AI-generated content: Produces relevant text content directly in design mockups.
- AI-powered rewriting and translation: Adjusts copy length, tone, and language within designs.
- FigJam AI: Helps visualize complex ideas, sort feedback, and automate tedious tasks.
The controversy surrounding Figma’s AI features began when Andy Allen, founder of NotBoring Software, discovered that Figma’s AI tool consistently generated designs reminiscent of Apple’s Weather app.
Is Allen right? Take a look below and see for yourself.
Figma AI looks rather heavily trained on existing apps.
This is a “weather app” using the new Make Designs feature and the results are basically Apple‘s Weather app (left). Tried three times, same results. https://t.co/Ij20OpPCer pic.twitter.com/psFTV6daVD
— Andy Allen (@asallen) July 1, 2024
Allen took to X to accuse Figma of “heavily” training its tool on existing apps.
Field promptly denied the accusations, stating that the Make Design feature was not trained on Figma content, community files, or app designs.
While Field took responsibility for the oversight, he also stated that the issue probably results from the app’s off-the-shelf models — in other words, it’s not Figma’s fault. Field said, “In other words, the accusations around data training in this tweet are false.”
Fair enough, but what happened to due diligence? Is Figma not marketing this tool based on its new AI features, thus taking on some responsibility for its outputs?
Field then said he’d remove the feature to investigate, “I have asked our team to temporarily disable the Make Design feature until we are confident we can stand behind its output. The feature will be disabled when our US based team wakes up in a few hours, and we will re-enable it when we have completed a full QA pass on the underlying design system.”
(4) I have asked our team to temporarily disable the Make Design feature until we are confident we can stand behind its output. The feature will be disabled when our US based team wakes up in a few hours, and we will re-enable it when we have completed a full QA pass on the…
— Dylan Field (@zoink) July 2, 2024
Figma’s AI design tools had already attracted criticism. Do they lower the barrier to web design and democratize skills, or risk the mass production of poor-quality, cookie-cutter apps?
The jury is out.
Or this will remove a lot of the repetitive work in design and raise the bar so new interesting ideas can emerge, just like new tooling always has
Corps that don’t invest in design still wont, and those that do will continue to do so. And the truth is there’s usually so much…
— Dustin Karp (@digitdustin) June 26, 2024
This has also tapped into the broader raging debate about copyright and intellectual property in the AI era.
Last year, a major study by cognitive scientist Dr. Gary Marcus and concept artist Reid Southen, titled “Generative AI Has a Visual Plagiarism Problem,” exposed the ability of AI models like Midjourney and DALL-E 3 to produce images that closely resemble copyrighted material – similar to Figma’s tool.
Legal challenges are also mounting, with authors and media companies filing lawsuits against AI companies for allegedly using copyrighted material in their training data without permission.
