Recently, Figma released its AI-powered Make Designs feature. According to the report, it was expected to enhance designer productivity, helping designers create UI layouts and components rapidly by merely entering text prompts describing the elements of the interface.
Shortly after launch, a variety of issues with its output were flagged. One developer called Andy Allen reported his results with the Make Designs tool, any attempt to create a weather app design with it resulted in the layouts formed being very similar to Apple’s own Weather app.
The experience that Allen went through raised a red flag on the possible legal risks involved. For designers, especially when directly copying established designs—such as those of Apple, for example—with no modifications, one can easily find themselves in legal wrangles over intellectual property rights.
Figma CEO Responds: Admits to Design System Issues
In a response to the criticism, Figma’s CEO, Dylan Field, explained that Figma AI is never trained on app designs. Rather, he blamed the problem on some underlying issues with the design systems in the tool.
On the basis of considerations raised, Figma immediately turned off its Make Designs feature. This is to prevent the accidental copying of already existent design until the underlined issues get completely resolved.
Further in future, Figma is going to improve its AI tools by making them compliant with legal norms and practices. Designers are recommended to be mindful and creative when using such automated characteristics in design so they may not get wrapped up in legal problems.
