Figma’s new tool Make Designs, which uses generative AI to quickly mock up apps, was removed from the market due to concerns that it produced designs strikingly similar to Apple’s iOS weather app. Figma CEO Dylan Field took responsibility for pushing the team to meet a deadline and defended the company’s approach to developing its AI tools.
The issue arose when Not Boring Software CEO Andy Allen showed examples of Make Designs producing near-replicas of Apple’s weather app, leading some to speculate that the tool was trained on existing apps. However, Figma CTO Kris Rasmussen said that the company did not train the AI models it used and instead relied on off-the-shelf models and a bespoke design system.
Rasmussen also noted that the variability of the designs was too low, which led to the issue with Make Designs producing similar-looking designs. He stated that Figma is looking into what extent the similarities are a function of the third-party models it uses vs. the design systems it commissioned, and will address the issue as needed.
Figma has not trained its AI tools but they’re spitting out Apple app lookalikes anyway, which could suggest that OpenAI or Amazon’s models were trained on Apple’s designs.