Figma CEO Dylan Field says the company will temporarily disable it. Its “Make Design” AI feature that was said to be ripping off the designs of Apple’s own Weather app. Andy Allen first spotted the problem. The founder of NotBoring Software, which makes a suite of apps. That includes a popular, skinnable Weather app and other utilities. He found by testing Figma’s tool that it would repeatedly reproduce Apple’s Weather app when used as a design aid.
Accusations of Data Training
Allen had taken to X, formerly Twitter, to accuse Figma of “heavily” training its tool on existing apps—an accusation Field now denies.
How to Make Design Works
The Make Design feature in Figma’s software generates UI (user interface) layouts and components from text prompts. When the feature launched, the company explained, “Just describe. What you need, and the feature will provide you with a first draft.”
Intended Use of Make Design
Figma said the idea was that developers could use the feature to help them quickly write down their ideas and begin exploring different design directions, then arrive at a solution faster.
Response to Accusations
Field notes in his response on X that. The feature was introduced at Figma’s Config conference last week. The company was not trained in Figma content, community files, or app designs.
“In other words, the accusations around data training in this tweet are false,” he said.
Quality Assurance Concerns
However, in its haste to launch new AI features to remain competitive, the quality assurance work that should accompany new additions seems to have been overlooked.
Community Reaction
Mirroring complaints in other industries, some designers immediately argued that Figma’s AI tools, like Make Design, would wipe out jobs by bringing digital design to the mass market. In contrast, others countered that AI would help eliminate much of the repetitive work that goes into design, allowing more exciting ideas to emerge.
Allen’s Discovery and Warning
Allen’s discovery that Figma essentially seemed to be copying other apps led to increased concern among the design community.
“Just a heads up to any designers using the new Make Designs feature that you may want to thoroughly check existing apps or modify the results heavily so that you don’t unknowingly land yourself in legal trouble,” Allen warned others on X.
Figma’s Clarification
Field clarified that Make Design uses off-the-shelf large language models combined with “systems. He said the problem with this approach is that the variability is too low.
Temporary Disablement of the Feature
“We identified the issue within hours of seeing [Allen’s] tweet. Which was related to the underlying design systems that were created,” Field wrote on X. “Ultimately, it is my fault for not insisting on a better QA process for this work and pushing our team hard to hit a deadline for Config.”
Next Steps for Figma
Field says Figma will temporarily disable the Make Design feature until the team is confident it can “stand behind its output.” The feature will be disabled as of Tuesday and will not be re-enabled until Figma has completed a full QA pass on the feature’s underlying design system.
Conclusion
Apple was not immediately available for comment. Figma pointed to Field’s tweets as its statement on the matter.
