Recently, Make Designs, an AI design tool launched by Figma, has caused huge controversy because the designs it generates are highly similar to Apple’s iOS weather app. This incident quickly spread on social media, triggering extensive discussions about the copyright and legal responsibilities of AI-generated content, and also exposed the potential risks and challenges of generative AI models. Figma CEO responded quickly, admitting that the product launch was too hasty and suspending the feature.
Make Designs, a generative AI tool recently launched by design software company Figma, has been embroiled in controversy after the designs it generated were strikingly similar to Apple's iOS weather app. Not Boring Software CEO Andy Allen demonstrated the similarity on social media, raising concerns about potential legal risks.
Figma CEO Dylan Field was quick to respond, admitting that the company was too hasty in rolling out the feature. He emphasized that Make Designs did not train for Figma content or application design, and the problem was that "the variability was too low."
Figma CTO Kris Rasmussen revealed that this feature mainly relies on OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Amazon’s Titan Image Generator G1 model. This raises questions about whether these third-party models were trained using Apple designs.
The company has temporarily delisted the Make Designs feature and promised to take extra precautions before re-enabling it. Rasmussen said Figma is reviewing its custom design system to ensure adequate variability and quality standards.
This incident highlights the complexity of AI applications in the creative field. Figma plans to potentially train its own models in the future, but promises to take steps to ensure only common design patterns and Figma-specific concepts are learned.
As AI tools become more widely used in creative industries, similar disputes are likely to become more frequent. All parties in the industry need to find a balance between innovation and copyright protection to deal with the challenges posed by this emerging technology.
The Make Designs incident has sounded a wake-up call in the AI field, reminding developers that while pursuing innovation, they need to pay more attention to copyright protection and ethical issues. In the future, the training and application of AI models need to be more cautious in order to avoid similar incidents from happening again and promote the healthy development of AI technology.