This past week, director Travis DuBridges’s sci-fi short film Hyperburn was released on YouTube, courtesy of the Dust channel. The story sees a soldier trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic environment with the help of an artificial intelligence assistant.

Synopsis –

In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a comedic, action-packed sci-fi unfolds as our hero teams up with his newly implanted A.I. companion. Together, they embark on a quest across the unforgiving desert. His first challenge? Find his team. Second? Survive the crippling boredom of the endless sand. Third? Face off against a formidable foe.

Having sabotaged an enemy spaceship, a soldier is teleported down to ground level, a barren desert. The soldier is injured, and separated from his team, his only companion an integrated artificial intelligence tactical system. The AI is curiously uninformed on the status of the rest of the team, having lost all contact – they are out of range.. The implanted AI, which is not without a sense of humour, discovers a signal, and sends him on his way.

The AI tactical system depicted is an interesting look at how artificial intelligence can advise and monitor soldiers on the battlefield. It is able to search for wireless signals and broadcasts, and evaluate the health of the user, including diagnosing injuries – this is the benefit of a biologically integrated system, as it can constantly monitor the condition of the soldier. It can also perform functions like measuring the distance for sniper shots. This is something a skilled soldier can also do by eye, but the processing power of an AI means interpretation of data can be much faster.  The system in Hyperburn has a very dry sense of humour. Is this key to using AI in a collaborative way, can we as humans engage better with matching personalities? Or is this more offputting? Another benefit of an AI teammate is the potential to talk the user down when decisions are made based on emotion – the artificial intelligence can think logically, and make decisions based on percentage equations.

Hyperburn is written and directed by Travis DuBridge. It stars Travis DuBridge, Morgan Holcomb, and Matt Murphy. It is well produced, humorous, and inspires a lot of questions about how AI can be used in extreme situations. You can watch Hyperburn on YouTube, for free, below.

Dust is a curated YouTube channel of independent short films, all in the science fiction genre, and they have a wide selection of well produced, thought provoking sci-fi films, all available to watch for free. We highly recommend checking them out.

https://www.youtube.com/@watchdust/featured

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