'What we create is stolen from us' Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Briana White discusses AI's impact on creativity

As conversations around artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry continue to grow, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth actress Briana White, who plays Aerith Gainsborough, has spoken openly about her fears as a creator. One of the last titles in which she appeared is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthand following this release, White shared her perspective on how artificial intelligence is impacting artists, especially as companies look for ways to create more while spending less.

White expanded on those concerns by drawing on her experience as both an actor and a streamer Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. She explained that thousands of hours of her voice and personality already exist online via streaming, making it easy for AI systems to replicate the performance without consent. While White acknowledged that AI has the potential to be a useful tool, even for gaming, and believes it won't go away, she emphasized that the technology is moving faster than meaningful conversations about ethics, ownership, and rewarding the people whose work is used.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Briana White feels that AI is robbing creators of their uniqueness

During a recent interview on Game Rant's Character Select with Naomi Kyle, the voice of Aerith Gainsborough v Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Briana White spoke at length about the growing tension between creativity and efficiency as artificial intelligence is increasingly applied to gaming and other media. She explained that while businesses naturally see AI as a way to produce more while spending less, it's the people whose work is used to train these systems that hold the promise.

“It's a pretty interesting place to be an actor and a streamer,” White said, referring to her career and side hustle as Twitch streamer TheStrangeRebel. “Everyone who's a business person wants to do more, spend less money, and that's something AI can do. But everyone who creates is panicking because what we create has value. What we create is being stolen from us.”

White clarified that she doesn't necessarily fear the technology itself. In fact, she described AI as something similar to the Internet in terms of how it can open doors for learning and access. “I think, like the Internet, AI is a democratizer,” she said. “I think he has a beautiful ability to teach people who need to be taught in different ways. I think it can help people think differently.” But she questioned where this intelligence comes from and whether the people whose work powers these systems are even considered.

The question becomes more complicated given White's dual role as actor and streamer. She emphasized that she spent years building an online presence, including hundreds, if not thousands, of hours streaming and speaking on camera. “I have hundreds if not thousands of hours at this point just talking and playing video games online,” White said. “That could be fed into the AI, along with other streamers, to create a fake actor.”

Everyone who creates panics because what we create has value. What we create is stolen from us.

For White, the idea is troubling not because of competition, but because of identity. “It's weird when I've spent my whole life making me and my whole career depends on me being me,” she said. She stressed that an actor's voice, mannerisms and presence are not fungible assets, but the result of years of work that AI can now mimic without permission.

Despite these concerns, White doesn't believe the solution is to completely reject AI. She said the debate over whether AI will continue is largely in her mind. “I'm on the AI side, so let's figure out how to do it right,” she said. For actors, this means clear rules regarding consent, credit and compensation when their likeness or voice is used.

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“If an AI model uses my likeness to learn what a person looks and sounds like, and then my likeness is used to create a work of artificial intelligence, I should get credit, credit and pay,” White said. She emphasized that the rush to implement AI has moved far faster than the ethical conversations needed to protect creators, leaving many performers scrambling to keep up while their work is already being used.

White's comments come at a time when concerns around artificial intelligence are growing across the industry, particularly among artists whose work, including recent appearances in games such as Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthit exists in digital spaces that are increasingly easy to replicate. For White, however, the issue is not whether artificial intelligence will be part of the future, but whether creators will ultimately have some say in how that future is built.