Figma disables AI design feature after it copied Apple’s Weather UI multiple times

Figma's Make Design feature, which lets users quickly generate a mock-up design for an app has been disabled after it was reportedly found copying the Apple Weather app interface.

Figma | Figma AI Make Design | Figma Apple Weather

Figma introduced several new AI tools last week. (Image Source: Figma/Express Photo)

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Last week, Figma launched new AI-powered tools which the company said would help users “push past creative blocks” and help them work more efficiently. These tools included a ‘Make Design’ feature that enabled users to generate mock-up apps using generative AI.

However, the feature has been now temporarily disabled after it was found out that it was ripping off the Apple Weather app interface. The problem surfaced when Andy Allen, the creator of the popular Paper app for iPad asked Figma AI to help him design a weather app. In a post on X, Allen said that he prompted the tool to make a mock-up design for a weather app, but every time, it closely resembled Apple’s Weather app.

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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

The idea behind the Make Design feature was that developers could ask Figma AI to generate UI layouts and components from simple text-based prompts. When Figma introduced the feature last week at its Config conference, the company said that its AI model was not trained on Figma content, community files or app designs.

Figma CEO said that instead of using an in-house AI model, the Make Design feature seems to be using off-the-shelf models like OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Amazon’s Titan Image Generator G1 combined with “systems we commissioned to be used by these models”. He also took the blame and that it was his “fault for not insisting on a better QA process for this work and pushing our team hard to hit a deadline for Config.”

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artificial intelligence