NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors have accused a top aide to former New York City Mayor Eric Adams of accepting diamond earrings from two real estate developers, then pressuring city regulators to expedite their construction projects, despite safety concerns.
In court papers filed Tuesday, prosecutors in Manhattan offered new details about one of several bribery schemes they say was carried out by Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a close confidant of Adams who once served as the second-most powerful person in city government.
She resigned in late 2024 shortly before she and her son were charged with raking in over $100,000 in bribes from the two developers, Raizada Vaid and Mayank Dwivedi. All four have pleaded not guilty.
Lewis-Martin was then hit with a separate set of bribery charges in August, alleging she traded political favors — including nixing a planned bike lane and steering shelter contracts toward a favored developer — for cash, home renovations and even a speaking role on the TV show “Godfather of Harlem.” She has also pleaded not guilty to those allegations.
An attorney for Lewis-Martin has maintained that she was only helping her constituents cut through red tape.
The latest filing expands on the initial charges brought against Lewis-Martin and her son, Glenn D. Martin II, who performs under the stage name DJ Suave Luciano.
Shortly after meeting with Vaid and Dwivedi in 2022, Lewis-Martin received a set of 2-carat diamond earrings worth around $3,000 from the developers, according to the new court filing.
Lewis-Martin then pressured city regulators to speed up approvals for the developers’ projects, prosecutors allege. In one case, she urged the acting commissioner of the Department of Buildings to approve the proposed renovation of a Manhattan hotel owned by Vaid, despite “legitimate safety concerns” raised by building inspectors, prosecutors said.
After city regulators agreed to expedite the application, Lewis-Martin texted her son indicating that Vaid would have him “completely covered. You(r) fashion line is 100 percent,” according to the court filing. Vaid also promised to help Martin II open a Chick-fil-A franchise, prosecutors said.
In an email, an attorney for Lewis-Martin, Arthur Aidala, criticized the length of the filing, without addressing its substance.
“We look forward to submitting our robust reply to the prosecutor’s desperate 170 page answer to our motion to dismiss,” Aidala said. “It is the longest answer to a motion we have ever seen and that speaks volumes about their insecurity in their case.”
Inquiries to attorneys for Martin II, Vaid and Dwivedi were not returned.
The case against Lewis-Martin, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, first emerged amid a period of overlapping scandals for the Adams’ administration. It is unrelated to Adams’ own indictment on federal corruption charges, which was dismissed last year by the Justice Department. Adams is not accused of any wrongdoing in Lewis-Martin's case.
A spokesperson for Adams did not respond to an inquiry about the latest allegations against Lewis-Martin.
FILE - Former NYC Mayor Eric Adam's Chief of Staff Ingrid Lewis-Martin appears for arraignment on corruption charges in Manhattan criminal court, Aug. 21, 2025, in New York. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool, File)
AI slop seems to be everywhere. Low-quality digital content made with artificial intelligence has flooded our feeds, screens and speakers. Is there anything we can do about it?
If you want fewer cartoonish videos of dead celebrities, creepy or absurd images or fake bands playing synthetic tunes, a few platforms have rolled out settings and features to help minimize AI-generated content.
Here is a guide on how to use them. But first, a caveat from Henry Ajder, who advises businesses and governments on AI and has been studying deepfakes since 2018. He warned that it's “incredibly difficult” to entirely remove AI slop content entirely from all your feeds.
He compared AI slop to the smog generated from the industrial revolution, when there weren't any pollution controls in place.
“It's going to be very, very hard for people to avoid inhaling, in this analogy.”
Pinterest's move to lean into the AI boom made it something of a poster child for the AI slop problem, as user complained that the online moodboard for pinning inspirational material by themes has become overrun with AI content.
So Pinterest recently rolled out a “tuner” that lets users adjust the amount of AI content they see in their feeds.
It rolled out first on Android and desktop operating systems, before starting on a more gradual roll out on iOS.
“Now, users can dial down the AI and add more of a human touch,” Pinterest said, adding that it would initially cover some categories that are “highly prone to AI modification or generation” such as beauty, art, fashion and home decor.
More categories have since been added, including architecture, art, beauty, entertainment, men’s, women’s and children’s fashion, health, home décor, and sport, food and drink.
To use the tuner, go to Settings and then to “refine your recommendations.” and then tap on GenAI interests, where you can use toggles to indicate the categories you'd like to see less AI-content.
It's no surprise that AI-generated videos proliferate on TikTok, the short-video sharing app. The company says there are at least 1.3 billion video clips on its platform it has labeled as AI-generated.
TikTok said in November it was testing an update to give users more control of the AI-generated content in their For You feeds. It's not clear when it will be widely available. TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.
To see if you have it on the TikTok mobile app, go to Settings, then Content Preferences, then to Manage Topics where you'll see a set of sliders to control various types of content, such as dance, humor, lifestyle and nature.
You can also access the controls from the For You feed, by tapping the Share button on the side of a post, then tap Why this Video, then Adjust your For You, and then Manage topics.
There should be a new slider that allows you to dial down — or turn up — the amount of AI-generated content that you receive. If you don't see it yet, it might be because you haven't received the update yet. TikTok said late last year that it would start testing the feature in coming weeks.
These controls are not available on the desktop browser interface.
You won't be able to get red of AI content altogether — TikTok says the controls are used to tailor the content rather than removing or replacing it entirely from feeds.
“This means that people who love AI-generated history content can see more of this content, while those who’d rather see less can choose to dial things down,” it said.
Song generation tools like Suno and Udio let users create music merely by typing some ideas into a chatbot window. Anyone can use them to spit out polished pop songs, but it also means streaming services have been flooded with AI tunes, often by accounts masquerading as real artists.
Among the music streaming platforms, only Deezer, a smaller European-based player, gives listeners a way to tell them apart by labeling songs as AI.
“Deezer has been really, really pushing the anti-AI generation music narrative,” said Henry Ajder.
Deezer says 60,000 fully AI-generated tracks, or more than 39% of the daily total, are uploaded to its platform every day and last year it detected and labeled more than 13.4 million AI tracks. The company says the people doing it are trying to make money by fraudulent streams.
If you can tear yourself away from Big Tech platforms, there are a new generation of apps targeting users who want to avoid AI.
Cara is a portfolio-sharing platform for artists that bans AI-generated work. Pixelfed is an ad-free Instagram rival where users can join different servers, or communities, including one for art that does not allow AI-generated content. Spread is a new social media platform with content for people who want to “access human ideas” and “escape the flood of AI slop.”
Watch out for the upcoming launch of diVine, a reboot of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's defunct short form video app Vine. The app has only been available as a limited prerelease for Apple iOS. It promises “No AI Slop” and uses multiple approaches to detect AI. An Android beta app is expected soon. The company plans to launch it in app stores soon but needs more time to get ready for unexpectedly high demand.
Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip.
Art teacher Joyce Hatzidakis uses the AI tool Google Gemini in her high school classroom Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, Riverside, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
