Figma has disabled its AI design feature that appears to be ripping off Apple's Weather app.

WhatsApp Group Join Now
Telegram Group Join Now
Instagram Group Join Now

Figma CEO Dylan Field says the company will temporarily disable its “Mac Design” AI feature that was said to be undermining the design of Apple's own Weather app. . The problem was first noticed by Andy Allen, founder of NotBoring Software, which makes a suite of apps that includes a popular, skinnable weather app and other utilities. He tested Figma's tool and found that it would repeatedly reproduce Apple's Weather app when used as a design aid.

Allen X, previously on Twitter, accused Figma of “heavily” training its tool on existing apps — a charge Field now denies.

The Mac Design feature is available within Figma's software and will generate UI (User Interface) layouts and components from a text prompt. “Just specify what you need, and the feature will provide you with the first draft,” is how the company explained the feature when it launched.

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

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

“In other words, the allegations about data training in this tweet are false,” he said.

But in the rush to roll out new AI features to stay competitive, the quality assurance work that should accompany new additions has been overlooked.

Mirroring complaints in other industries, some designers immediately argued that Figma's AI tools, such as MacDesign, would eliminate jobs by bringing digital design to the mass market, while others responded that AI It will only help to eliminate a lot of repetitive tasks. In design, allows more interesting ideas to emerge.

Allen's discovery that Figma appears to be essentially copying other apps raised concerns in the design community.

Allen warns others at X, “Just for any designers using the new Mac Designs feature that you might want to thoroughly check existing apps or edit the results a lot so you don't inadvertently Don't get yourself into legal trouble.”

Field responded by explaining that Mac Design uses off-the-shelf language models, “the systems we've commissioned to use these models.” The problem with this approach, he said, is that the variability is too low.

“Within hours of viewing [Allen’s] In the tweet, we identified the problem, which was related to the underlying design systems that were created,” Field wrote on X. “Ultimately it's my fault for not insisting on a better QA process for this work. And push your team hard. Deadline for order.

Apple was not immediately available for comment. Figma pointed to Field's tweets as its statement on the matter.

Field says Figma will temporarily disable the Mac design feature until the team is confident it can “stand behind its output.” The feature will be disabled until Tuesday and will not be re-enabled until Figma completes a full QA pass on the feature's core design system.

WhatsApp Group Join Now
Telegram Group Join Now
Instagram Group Join Now

Leave a Comment