Figma Disables ‘Make Design’ AI-Powered Rip-Off Tool
Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:
Figma CEO Dylan Field says the company will temporarily disable
its “Make Design” AI feature that was said to be ripping
off the designs of Apple’s own Weather app. The problem was first
spotted by Andy Allen, the founder of NotBoring
Software, which makes a suite of apps that includes
a popular, skinnable Weather app and other utilities. He
found by testing Figma’s tool that it would repeatedly reproduce
Apple’s Weather app when used as a design aid.
Field is right to pull the feature but this explanation is sophistry. The feature is clearly fundamentally flawed. It’s not in need of a tweak. It’s in need of being completely scrapped.
Generative is really good and truly useful when you say “Here’s a thing, help me tweak it or change it”. But when you say “Make a new thing for me” you’re effectively just getting a rip-off a lot — or perhaps most — of the time.
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Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:
Figma CEO Dylan Field says the company will temporarily disable
its “Make Design” AI feature that was said to be ripping
off the designs of Apple’s own Weather app. The problem was first
spotted by Andy Allen, the founder of NotBoring
Software, which makes a suite of apps that includes
a popular, skinnable Weather app and other utilities. He
found by testing Figma’s tool that it would repeatedly reproduce
Apple’s Weather app when used as a design aid.
Field is right to pull the feature but this explanation is sophistry. The feature is clearly fundamentally flawed. It’s not in need of a tweak. It’s in need of being completely scrapped.
Generative is really good and truly useful when you say “Here’s a thing, help me tweak it or change it”. But when you say “Make a new thing for me” you’re effectively just getting a rip-off a lot — or perhaps most — of the time.