Figma CEO Dylan Field announced that his company would temporarily disable its recent AI features.
The decision got here after allegations that the tool reproduced designs that were strikingly much like those of Apple's Weather app, raising doubts about whether Figma's training data contained copyrighted content.
If Figma's tools contain copyrighted material, so do the outcomes, which might cause legal problems for users.
Figma is a collaborative website design app that recently launched AI-powered features on the recent Config conference. It embeds several off-the-shelf AI models into Figma's own systems and offers:
- AI-generated content: Creates relevant text content directly in design models.
- AI-powered rewriting and translation: Adjusts text length, tone and language inside designs.
- FigJam AI: Helps visualize complex ideas, sort feedback, and automate tedious tasks.
The controversy surrounding the AI capabilities of Apple's weather app Figma began when Andy Allen, founding father of NotBoring Software, discovered that Figma's AI tool was continually generating designs harking back to Apple's weather app.
Is Allen right? Take a glance below and see for yourself.
Figma AI appears to be trained quite heavily on existing apps.
This is a “weather app” that uses the brand new “Create Themes” feature. The results are essentially Apple's weather app (left). Tried 3 times, same result. https://t.co/Ij20OpPCer pic.twitter.com/psFTV6daVD
— Andy Allen (@asallen) July 1, 2024
Allen accused Figma of coaching its tool “intensively” on existing apps.
While Field took responsibility for the oversight, he also said the issue was likely on account of the app's default models. “In other words, the allegations about data training on this tweet are false.”
Okay, but what happened to due diligence? Isn't Figma marketing this tool based on its recent AI features, thereby taking some responsibility for its results?
In addition, legal risks can arise if developers unknowingly publish copyrighted content created with Figma.
Field said he would remove the feature to analyze the case: “I've asked our team to temporarily disable the Make Design feature until we're confident we are able to stand behind its output. The feature will probably be disabled when our US team wakes up in just a few hours, and we'll re-enable it once we've accomplished a full quality assurance of the underlying design system.”
(4) I actually have asked our team to temporarily disable the Create Design feature until we’re confident that we are able to stand behind its results. The feature will probably be disabled when our US The based team will get up in just a few hours and we are going to re-enable it once we’ve got accomplished a full QA pass for…
— Dylan Field (@zoink) July 2, 2024
Figma's AI design tools have already faced massive criticism. Do they lower the barriers to website design and democratize skills, or do they risk the mass production of low-quality, commoditized apps?
The jury shouldn’t be unanimous.
Or it will eliminate quite a lot of the repetitive work in design and lift the bar in order that recent interesting ideas can emerge, just as recent tools have at all times done.
Companies that don't put money into design will proceed to not achieve this, and those who do will proceed to achieve this. And the reality is that there is often a lot…
— Dustin Karp (@digitdustin) 26 June 2024
This has also given rise to the broader, heated debate about copyright and mental property within the age of artificial intelligence.
Last 12 months, cognitive scientist Dr. Gary Marcus and conceptual artist Reid Southen published a significant study entitled “Generative AI has a visible plagiarism problem“, revealed the power of AI models like Midjourney and DALL-E 3 to create images that closely resemble copyrighted material – much like Figma’s tool.
The legal challenges are also increasingwith authors and media corporations filing lawsuits against AI corporations for allegedly using copyrighted material of their training data without permission.
These questions still should be answered, and everybody from AI developers to creators is puzzled by what copyright means today.
