On a recent episode of The Gilbert Arenas Show, three-time NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas was shocked to learn of Matt Barnes’ claims he got extorted by someone who used artificial intelligence technology.
At around the 41-minute mark of the podcast, as seen below, the topic of AI influencers came up when Arenas seemingly noticed a comment from a fan in the chat. “Matt Barnes got finessed out of $61,000?” he said, with a shocked expression on his face. “By an AI snow bunny? No, y’all playing. What?! No, I don’t believe it.”
Arenas then suggested that he could never find himself in a similar situation. “I’m the only person that can’t get caught by AI like that,” he continued. “You gotta show me something real.” Barnes' allegations were then read out by his co-host, Josiah Johnson, while Arenas sat there in further disbelief.
Last month, Barnes said he was a victim of an AI-assisted extortion scheme led by someone who used AI-produced audio, video, and text messages that she threatened to leak to various outlets, including infamous gossip blogger Tasha K.
“The woman allegedly used artificial intelligence to create convincing deep fake audio, video, and messages that made Barnes appear unfaithful,” said Johnson. “Damn,” Arenas added. “If she did all that, she got to have pictures or something now. … I’m telling you right now, if I’m paying $60,000, I’m getting whatever you selling. And it ain’t going to be no, hey… For me to shush-shush. How you get catfished like that?”
In a post shared on Instagram last month, Barnes claimed that he’s planning to sue Tasha K for posting allegedly AI-generated audio and video that depicted him as unfaithful to Anansa Sims, who accused him of cheating earlier this year. “I’m going to show you some receipts,” he said in the post, as seen below. “This started July of 2023, my ex and I had split for about a month.”
Barnes said that he communicated with this woman during his time apart from Sims, but he stopped the exchanges when he and Sims reunited. Barnes said he began getting threats to “expose” him from different phone numbers, and considering that Sims was pregnant at the time, he decided to pay the person to stop his then fiancée from getting stressed.
Barnes said he kept paying the unidentified woman all the way up until September 2024, and he showed proof of what went down to Sims. The extorter then sent what he said was fake audio and other materials to Tasha K, whom he accused of not fact-checking her sources. He said that there were reports about his sexuality, him trying to talk someone into getting an abortion, and other various stories.
“It’s bullshit,” Barnes concluded. Alongside his explanation, he included various receipts, showing text messages from the person and proof of the $61,000 in payments he sent to a person named Zoe. “Just wait till all those get out,” she wrote alongside a screenshot showing alleged voice messages.
It does not appear that Barnes has filed his lawsuit against Tasha K as of publication.