Minecraft developer rejects generative AI, 'it's important that it makes us feel happy to create as humans'

Employees of Minecraft developer Mojang have spoken on the role of generative AI in game development at a recent event
They didn’t seem too thrilled with the technology and stated that Minecraft required a human touch
It comes as other Microsoft studios begin to use generative AI more heavily

It seems like you don’t need to worry about generative AI (artificial intelligence) worming its way into the hit open-world survival game Minecraft.

According to IGN, Minecraft Vanilla game director Agnes Larsson discussed the issue of AI in game development at a recent event and wasn’t too enthusiastic about the prospect. “Here for us, just like Minecraft is about creativity and creating,” they said.

“I think it’s important that it makes us feel happy to create as humans. That’s a purpose, [that] makes life look beautiful. So for us, we really want it to be our teams that make our games.”

Minecraft Vanilla executive producer Ingela Garneij added that the “specific touch of: what is Minecraft, how does it look?” is an “extra quality” that “is really tricky to create through AI.” They even said that the developer has struggled to work with remote teams and emphasized the importance of human, face-to-face interactions.

“I mean 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,” Garneij continued. “The lore, everything – it’s so massive. Minecraft, it’s a planet, it’s massive.”

Minecraft developer Mojang is a part of Xbox Game Studios and is ultimately owned by Microsoft. Other Xbox Game Studios developers don’t appear to share the same reservations regarding generative AI. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, for example, is filled with assets that were created with generative AI tools – a decision that caused some backlash within the game’s community.

Earlier this year, Microsoft revealed a “breakthrough” generative AI model that could be used to “create consistent and diverse gameplay.” Known as Project Muse, Xbox head Phil Spencer indicated that it could be used to help preserve old games.

Although generative AI seems exciting and is becoming an increasingly large part of our lives, it poses a number of ethical and environmental concerns that seem tricky to resolve. The decision to keep it away from Minecraft seems to go hand-in-hand with the game’s focus on exploring a distinctly human kind of creativity.