Aerith Actor Briana White Warns Gen AI Threatens Actors, Streamers

Briana White, a globally recognized voice actor for portraying Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, has issued a stark warning regarding the rapid growth of artificial intelligence in the creative arts. During a recent interview on Game Rant's Character Select with Naomi Kyle, White characterized the unauthorized use of actors' voices by generative AI as a direct theft of human creativity. She emphasized that while businesses naturally see AI as a way to produce more while spending less, the technology is effectively stripping artists of their agency by using their past work to train systems designed to replace them.

White’s concerns extend far beyond her scripted studio work. As a prominent streamer under the handle "TheStrangeRebel," she noted that her thousands of hours of online content make her particularly vulnerable to digital replication. She explained that this vast library of audio, hundreds of hours of her simply talking and playing games, could easily be fed into AI models to create a "fake actor" without her knowledge. 

For White, this is deeply unsettling because her career depends on her unique identity, a craft she has spent a lifetime building. "That's weird when I've spent a lifetime crafting me, and my entire career depends on me being me," she noted.

A Billion-Dollar Challenge for Creators

The anxiety felt by White and her peers is backed by surging market numbers that highlight the threat to human jobs. Generative AI in the gaming sector reached USD 1.81 billion in 2025, marking a significant 22.8% increase from the previous year. While these tools offer studios a way to reduce spending on dialogue and localization, the human cost is becoming visible. However, White notes, "What we create has value," and the current model amounts to their creativity being "stolen" rather than simply automated.

Despite these fears, White acknowledges that the technology is likely here to stay, comparing its arrival to the internet as a "democratizer" that can offer new ways to learn. However, she insists that the industry must figure out how to implement it fairly. Her stance echoes the goals of the recent SAG-AFTRA strike, where actors fought for guardrails regarding digital replicas. 

White argues that if an AI model uses her likeness to learn, strict transparency is required. "If an AI model uses my likeness to learn what a human looks and sounds like... I should get credit, recognition, and pay," she stated, stressing that consent must be the foundation if the human touch of storytelling is to survive.