Kristen Stewart brings bizarre AI romance to Sundance

Can artificial intelligence feel loneliness, or even love? And what would it think of us after humans have gone?

"Love Me," surely the most surreal and original entry at this year's Sundance film festival, stars Kristen Stewart and Steven Yuen as an AI-powered buoy and orbiting satellite who strike up a romance after humanity has wiped itself off the Earth.

Apparently the sole two surviving sentient devices, they try to overcome their loneliness by chatting across thousands of miles and over millions of years, forging an unlikely bond.

Building up their personalities from scratch, they scour the internet for information about the departed human civilization, mimicking the often cringeworthy and absurd human behavior they find on influencers' social media accounts.

"For us, it's not really a movie about AI. But it's a movie about us, seen through the lens of AI," said co-director Andy Zuchero, at the movie's world premiere in Utah on Friday.

"Sort of trying to unpack humanity circa 2024."

Stewart and Yuen provide voices for the buoy and satellite, and gradually appear on screen in various visual forms as the AI machines construct a bizarre metaverse of their own.

"It's about a world in which we're no longer here," said Stewart, on the red carpet.

With performative clips on the internet providing the only surviving imprint of humanity, "the echo that we've left is primarily screaming 'Love me!'" added the former "Twilight" star.

Stewart will premiere a second film at Sundance on Saturday. "Love Lies Bleeding" portrays a violent and criminal affair between a gym manager and a bisexual bodybuilder.

Premiering later on Friday, Saoirse Ronan gives a hotly tipped performance in "The Outrun" as an alcoholic who returns from London to the wild beauty of Scotland's Orkney Islands to heal.

Sundance, a key launching pad for many of the year's most anticipated independent films and documentaries, runs until January 28.