But the creator of Minecraft Marcus Perssonthe billionaire developer better known as “Notch,” sounds an alarm: Even if tech companies are adopting coding with AI, that’s not a good thing.

“Remember that using AI to write code is still a bad idea, and anyone who promotes it is not capable or evil,” Persson recently wrote in an X post.

“It’s just as dumb as letting AI write the laws. It’s about logic, not about typing.”

Persson argues that his anxiety is not rooted in direct resistance to innovation, but in fear about the loss of autonomy, creative control, and the essence of what it means to code.

“If you seriously believe that the same people who manipulate people through the mainstream media (for clearly evil purposes) won’t use subtle ways to use AI to manipulate us, you’re dumb. It’s forced down our throats for a reason,” the 46-year-old said. SAYS.

His point: “Don’t rely on AI for programming.”

Persson’s warning is especially pointed given how many young engineers are entering the field of head volume reduction at a time that Promptings and vibe coding is not just a fad—but is increasingly being treated as a replacement for traditional programming practices.

Last April, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that more than 30% of Google’s code is now generated by AI. The following month, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella puts that number for his company at between 20% and 30%. Leaders in AI startups like OpenAI and Anthropic have done more recently, suggests that technology now doing 100% of their code.

Notch’s advice for Gen Z developers: ‘Learn. Your. Craft.’

Persson, who taught himself how to code while growing up in Sweden, worked on the game’s development—including in the studio that’s now in the background Candy Crush—before the official launch Minecraft in 2011. The sandbox game quickly became a hit among millennials and Gen Z gamers and has sold over 300 million copies to date.

Minecraft Obtained in 2014 by Microsoft for $2.5 billion. In the years after the sale, Persson became a controversial figure and was excluded from the official Minecraft anniversary events follows a series of offensive posts on social media. His net worth is estimated at $1.5 billion, according to Forbes.

Despite the game’s popularity as a gateway for young people to learn programming—and recently experiment with AI—Persson stayed doubt too much to outsourcing core skills to algorithms.

His advice for aspiring tech developers remains simple: “Learn. Your. Craft. You can’t program safely if you don’t know how to do it,” he SAYS.

“It’s like only knowing how to fly, but not how to land or take off.”

Persson REFUSES Fortune’s request for further comment.

While Notch warns against AI, CEOs say mastering it is essential

Persson is not alone in advocating that programming should remain a basic skill. But many leaders disagree on what the foundation of the AI ​​era will look like.

GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke said that programming literacy should not be limited to future software engineers.

“I firmly believe that every child, every child, should learn to code,” Dohmke SAYS. “We have to teach them coding in school, the same way we teach them physics and geography and literacy and math and so on.”

Andrew Ngthe former head of Google Brain and cofounder of Courseraexpressed disagreement with Persson’s ideas—actively encouraging people to take advantage of AI by using it as a coding assistant.

“Don’t code by hand. Don’t do it the old way,” Ng said last year at the Snowflake Building conference.

“Get AI to help you code,” he added. “And that will make people in all job functions more productive and more enjoyable.”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang echoes that the need to master AI is more pressing for everyone.

“Each job will be affected, and immediately. This is unquestionable,” Huang said The Milken Institute’s Global Conference last year. “You won’t lose your job to an AI, but you will lose your job to someone who uses AI.”