Markus “Notch” Persson

Markus Persson (born 1979), known worldwide as “Notch,” is the Swedish programmer who created Minecraft — the best-selling video game of all time — and founded Mojang, which Microsoft bought for $2.5 billion in 2014. A self-taught coder who built Minecraft’s first version alone, Persson became gaming’s most famous solo-developer success story, though his subsequent years of inflammatory social-media posts saw Microsoft exclude him from official Minecraft anniversary events.

“Incompetent or evil”

In early 2026, as the industry raced to adopt AI coding assistants, Persson posted one of the most quoted broadsides against them: using AI to write code, he wrote, is “an incredibly bad idea still,” and anyone advocating it is “either incompetent or evil.” He went further in follow-up posts, arguing that the companies pushing AI would inevitably use it for manipulation — “It’s being forced down our throats for a reason” — and telling young developers they cannot safely program without knowing the craft themselves.

In July 2026 he distilled the position to a two-word post — “Reject AI.” — that drew millions of views. The stance carries weight in developer circles precisely because Persson is no outsider: he wrote the code that became a $2.5 billion product, and he has since committed to building a spiritual successor to Minecraft at his new studio. Fortune noted he declined to elaborate when asked for comment, letting the posts speak for themselves.

Persson’s hard line contrasts sharply with the platform holders now embedding AI throughout gaming — including Microsoft, Minecraft’s owner, whose gaming chief Phil Spencer has championed generative gameplay models.