"What we create is stolen from us" Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Briana White Discusses AI's Impact on Creativity

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

White expanded on these concerns by drawing on his 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 through streaming, making it easier for AI systems to replicate a 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 evolving faster than meaningful conversations around ethics, ownership and compensation for the people whose work is being used.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Briana White Feels AI robs the creators of their uniqueness

During a recent interview on Game Rants Character Select with Naomi Kyle, voice of Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Briana White spoke at length about the growing tension between creativity and efficiency as AI becomes more widely adopted in games and other media. She explained that while companies naturally see AI as a way to produce more while spending less, that promise comes at a cost to the people whose labor is used to train these systems.

“It's kind of an interesting place to be an actor and a streamer,” White said, referring to her career and her side hustle as Twitch streamer TheStrangeRebel. “Everyone who is a business person wants to do more, spend less money, and that's something that AI is celebrated for being able to 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 is not necessarily afraid of 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, just like the internet, AI is a democratizer,” she said. “I think it has beautiful possibilities to teach people who need to learn different ways. I think it can help people think differently.” But she questioned where that intelligence comes from, and whether the people whose work runs these systems are considered at all.

That question becomes more complicated given White's dual role as both actor and streamer. She pointed out that she has spent years building an online presence, including hundreds, if not thousands, of hours streaming and talking on camera. “At this point, I have hundreds, if not thousands of hours just talking and playing video games online,” White said. “That can 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 a lifetime creating myself, 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 think the solution is to reject AI outright. She said the debate over whether AI will continue is largely settled in her mind. “I'm on the side of AI happening, so let's figure out how to do it right,” she said. For actors, this means clear rules around 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 human looks and sounds like, and then my likeness is used to create AI work, I should get credit, recognition and pay,” White said. She emphasized that the rush to implement AI has outpaced the ethical conversations needed to protect creators, leaving many artists struggling to keep up while their work is already being used.

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