Generative AI seems like the silver bullet that will change the creative process, but as we’ve seen, the early stages of this technology have many obstacles in their way. The latest company to hit an unforeseen AI roadblock is Figma, a design company for software developers. Figma thought its new Make Design tool that uses AI to create mockups was going to be a hit, but the company pulled the plug for reasons that are, well, embarrassing.
As noted on X, Make Design creates mockups that look exactly like Apple apps. In one example, a weather app submitted to Make Design resulted in a mockup that looks so much like Apple’s Weather app that it’s hard to tell the difference.
Creating a design inspired by others is one thing, but in this case, it’s a complete scam. Figma’s excuse? It’s not their fault since they don’t use their own AI models. In an X thread, Figma CEO Dylan Field said that Make Design “uses off-the-shelf LLMs, combined with design systems that we commissioned to be used by those models.” When Figma CTO Kris Rasmussen was asked by The Verge whether Make Design was trained directly on Apple’s app designs, Rasmussen “couldn’t say for sure.”
“I have asked our team to temporarily disable the Make Design feature until we are sure we can guarantee its outcome,” Field posted on X.
Generative AI will eventually become a miracle tool, but this Figma incident is just another reminder that these tools can’t be used without a watchful eye. As Daring Fireball’s John Gruber puts it, “Generative AI is really good and really useful when you say, ‘Here’s something, help me tweak it or change it.’ But when you say, ‘Make something new for me,’ you’re actually getting scammed a lot of the time.”
Apple Intelligence is also worth keeping a close eye on. While Apple is taking a cautious approach, users should be careful to ensure that the tools do what they are supposed to do without compromise.
