Figma Disables AI Design Feature That Seemed to Copy Apple’s Weather App

The Make Design feature is available in Figma’s software and generates layouts and UI components from text prompts. “Simply describe what you need and the feature will provide you with a first draft,” the company explained when the feature was launched.

The idea was that developers could use the feature to help them quickly write down their ideas so they could start exploring different design directions and then arrive at a solution more quickly, Figma said.

The feature was demonstrated at Figma’s Config conference last week, where the company explained that it had not been trained on Figma content, community files, or app designs, Field notes in his response on X.

“In other words, the accusations around data manipulation in this tweet are false,” he said.

But in its rush to launch new AI features to stay competitive, the quality assurance work that should accompany the new additions appears to have been neglected.

Mirroring complaints in other industries, some designers immediately argued that Figma’s AI tools, like Make Design, would eliminate jobs by bringing digital design to the mass market, while others countered that AI would simply help eliminate much of the repetitive work required for design, allowing more interesting ideas to emerge.

Allen’s discovery that Figma appeared to essentially copy other applications sparked increased concern within the design community.

“Just a warning to any designers using the new Make Designs feature: you may want to carefully review existing applications or significantly modify the results so you don’t unknowingly find yourself in legal trouble,” Allen warned on X.

Field responded by clarifying that Make Design uses standard language models, coupled with “systems that we commission to be used by those models.” He said the problem with this approach is that the variability is too low.

“Within hours of seeing (Allen’s) tweet, we identified the issue, which was related to the underlying design systems that were created,” Field wrote on X. “Ultimately, it’s my fault for not pushing for a better QA process for this work and not pushing our team to meet a deadline for Config.”

Apple was not immediately available for comment. Figma cited Field’s tweets as its statement on the matter.

Field said Figma would temporarily disable the Make Design feature until the team is confident it can “guarantee its outcome.” The feature will be disabled starting Tuesday and won’t be re-enabled until Figma completes a full QA on the feature’s underlying design system.