In the rapidly evolving landscape of game development, where generative artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a common tool, Minecraft's developer, Mojang, stands firm in its commitment to human creativity. While other gaming giants like Activision have openly embraced generative AI, using it for art in games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Microsoft has developed Muse to generate game ideas, Mojang remains steadfast in its approach.

Mojang's dedication to the human touch that has propelled Minecraft to become the best-selling game of all time, with over 300 million sales, was highlighted by Minecraft Vanilla game director Agnes Larsson at a recent event attended by IGN. Larsson emphasized the importance of human creativity, stating, "Here for us, just like Minecraft is about creativity and creating, I think it's important that it makes us feel happy to create as humans. That's a purpose, [it] makes life look beautiful. So for us, we really want it to be our teams that make our games."

Echoing this sentiment, Ingela Garneij, executive producer of Minecraft Vanilla, added, "For me, it's the thinking outside of the box part. This specific touch of: what is Minecraft? How does it look? That extra quality is really tricky to create through AI. We even try to have remote teams sometimes and guide them in building things for us, which has never worked, because you have to be here working together face-to-face. Creativity is... you need to meet like this as a person, as a human to really truly understand the values and principles and the ecosystem, the lore, everything. It's so massive Minecraft, it's a planet, it's massive."

Mojang's human-centric approach continues to drive the game's development, with the upcoming graphics update, Vibrant Visuals, set to enhance the visual experience. Despite its age of 16 years, Minecraft shows no signs of slowing down, and Mojang remains committed to improving and expanding the original game without resorting to a "Minecraft 2" or making it free-to-play. Moreover, there is no indication that generative AI will find its way into the game's Nether or any other aspect of Minecraft.

For more on what's coming to Minecraft, be sure to check out everything announced at Minecraft Live 2025.