'We were old school': A Minecraft Movie's Jared Hess denies using AI to enhance his film adaptation of Mojang's very popular sandbox game

Exclusive: 'The human experience is so critical to all forms of art'

News By Tom Power published 2 April 2025

No, A Minecraft Movie's creative team didn't use artificial intelligence to enhance the film (Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures/Mojang Studios)

A Minecraft Movie director Jared Hess has given short shrift to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the entertainment industry.

Speaking to TechRadar ahead of the film's release on April 4, Hess revealed that AI wasn't used at any point during A Minecraft Movie's development. However, he admitted that its wide-ranging application throughout the movie- and TV-making business was inevitable, even though it can't – and likely won't – come close to replicating the creativity that human artists, animators, voice actors, and other talented industry folk possess in abundance.

"We didn't use it as part of development," Hess emphatically replied when I asked if he leaned on AI during production on one of 2025's new movies. "We were old school, so we used human artists with awesome brains and imaginations.

I just hope AI is used as a tool and not as a shortcutJared Hess, A Minecraft Movie director

"Look, AI is going to affect every aspect of life, including entertainment," he continued. "I just hope it's used as a tool and not as a shortcut. Again, the human experience is so critical to all forms of art, and that kind of nuance and voice and perspective is something that AI can't replicate. It's currently able to imitate things, sure, but I'm always just going to gravitate toward the human [experience] wherever I can."

AI's application in the entertainment business has exploded over the past year. From its controversial use in Oscar-nominated flick like The Brutalist and its fellow Academy Award nominee Emilia Perez, to its multifaceted application on some of the world's best streaming services, artificial intelligence's influence on Hollywood will only grow from here.

As Hess said, here's hoping it's implemented in the correct manner and at the right time, rather than being mishandled in order to replace the human workforce and human invention as we know it.

'I wanted to barf my brains out!'

Warner Bros' take on Mojang Studios' universally popular Minecraft sandbox video game benefitted from the use of other forms of technology, though. There was one particular piece of virtual reality (VR) tech that Hess says he "couldn't handle", too, because of how nauseating it felt.

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