Kristin Stewart, Steven Yeun, Directors on AI Love Story

2023 was the year of the AI villain in Hollywood, with blockbusters like “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” and “The Creator” portraying artificial intelligence as a deadly force that could ultimately destroy humanity. But married filmmaking duo Andy and Sam Zuchero decided to take a different approach with their sprawling romance “Love Me,” which tells the story of two AI entities who take on multiple physical forms during their billion year affair. What if AI was a positive thing that could help us see love in a new light?

It was a wise approach, as “Love Me” has become one of the most talked about films of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The Zucheros and their stars Kristin Stewart and Steven Yeun stopped by the IndieWire Studio at Sundance, presented by Dropbox, to talk about their film’s optimistic approach to AI.

“We had a story that was a science fiction story, and Sam said ‘Throw it out the window,’ because we wanted to make a love story,” Andy Zuchero said. “As we were making this movie, the landscape of technology and AI has evolved so much. We’re getting a lot of questions about how this movie unpacks AI or looks at AI. And we’re honestly just spectators, we’re the audience members to see this new thing evolve, and it’s exciting. And really our movie isn’t about AI. It’s about us, through the lens of AI. And the cool part about that is AI just functions so it can draw from everything and…