How to summon mobs with no AI in Minecraft

Minecraft players can add new mobs to their world through spawn eggs or console commands, and specific commands can even remove the artificial intelligence of these mobs.

By removing AI for a mob, it is left stationary and incapable of acting. It has applications, specifically in the decoration and experimentation facets of Minecraft.

Regardless of what players intend to do with an AI-less mob, creating one requires console commands, as spawn eggs will create mobs as they would typically spawn, which includes their AI programming.

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Minecraft: Using commands to create an AI-less mob

Many different mobs can be created with commands, all without their AI (Image via Mojang)

Before activating any commands to summon mobs without AI, Minecraft players must ensure that cheats are enabled on their world/server. In a multiplayer server or realm, players will want to ensure they have the necessary permissions to enter commands and cheats.

Without the correct privileges, players won't be able to execute commands entered into their chat console. Once cheats are enabled, players can begin to use the chat console to disable AI on a summon.

In Minecraft: Java Edition, players can use the command syntax:

/summon <entity> ~ ~ ~ <nbt>

The ~ symbols represent X, Y, and Z coordinates of the entity placed (but aren't needed for this summon command specifically), <entity> represents the mob that players wish to summon, and <nbt> represents a data tag that applies additional information to the entity. In this case, it will apply the fact that the mob has no AI.

An example of a Java Edition summon command without AI would be /summon minecraft:creeper ~ ~ ~ {NoAI:1}. This would create a creeper mob with no AI, incapable of moving or exploding, or acting up in any way.

Unfortunately, since NBT tags are not currently available in Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, this method is not a valid way to create a mob without AI. This may change in the future in the event that Mojang includes NBT tags in a later update, but for now, the only platform where this command is confirmed to work is in Minecraft: Java Edition.

The command syntax is also specific to recent versions of Java Edition, such as Java version 1.16, 1.17, and beyond.