A company called Fortell made an A.I.-powered device that tries to tune out background noise in real time. Ask Fortell's test subject, Steve Martin. In 2023, the comedian, actor, writer, and banjo virtuoso Steve Martin was walking through SoHo, followed closely by two men holding a laptop. The laptop was connected by an Ethernet cable to a 3-D-printed plastic box, and the box was connected by wires to Martin's head. A passerby recognized him and asked whether the benefits of celebrity included having assistants literally tethered to him.

Well, Who Do You Know? AI-powered startup Fortell has become a secret handshake for the privileged hearing-impaired crowd who swear by the product. Now, it wants to be in your ears. A secret is percolating at dinner parties, salons, and cocktail gatherings among the august New York City elite. It's whispered in the circles of financial masters of the universe, Hollywood stars, and owners of sports teams. Many haven't--or if they did hear, they might not have made out the words through noisy cross-conversations. Once they do know--particularly if they're boomers--they want it desperately. Fortell is a hearing aid, one that claims to use AI to provide a dramatically superior aural experience. The chosen few included in its beta test claim that it seems to top the performance of high-end devices they'd been unhappily using. These testers have made pilgrimages to Fortell's headquarters on the fifth floor of a WeWork facility in New York City's trendy SoHo neighborhood, where they were fitted for the hearing aids--which from the outside look pretty much like standard, over-the-ear, teardrop-shaped devices. But the big moment comes when a Fortell staffer takes them down to street level.