‘Ink’: Danny Boyle Confirms AI Was Used to Generate Margaret Thatcher, The Kray Brothers and Mice

UPDATE: Danny Boyle has confirmed what I had suspected, via Vanity Fair: generative AI was used for about 30 seconds total in “Ink.”

He said AI was used to animate old photographs—which means Margaret Thatcher and the Kray brothers—and to create mice running around the newsroom. Boyle described AI as a potentially useful filmmaking tool if used respectfully and with actors properly paid when their likenesses are replaced.

EARLIER: A few days ago, critic Luke Hearfield wrote a reaction to Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” citing that the biggest “scandal” of the film was the decision to include “what looked like” AI-generated depictions of the Kray Twins and Margaret Thatcher.

Now that I’ve seen “Ink,” I noticed this as well, particularly when Thatcher shows up on-screen for, at most, 10 seconds. She looked remarkably like Thatcher and came off as almost too polished, non-human like. Now, it could just be bad CGI, and Hearfield has since amended what he said, calling it more of a “knee-jerk response” to what he witnesses on-screen, which only “looked” like AI. Still, plenty of others have now come out wondering the same thing.

Furthermore, online sleuths have noticed that on the “Ink” IMDb page, Dillan Nicholls, a “generative AI visual effects supervisor and producer,” is credited. Furthermore, Nicholls’ LinkedIn page confirms his work on “Ink.” Odds are, Hearfield’s suspicions might not have been totally off — there might actually be something to this story.

Of course, AI has already been used — often in secret — on a number of recent films, including “Supergirl” and “The Ice Cream Man.” The key wording there is “in secret”: we only know about the titles I mentioned because the filmmakers were “caught.” AI is most likely already being used far more widely across Hollywood than we realize, and while its use remains highly taboo at the moment, the future is unlikely to bring fewer films using AI. If anything, we’ll probably see much more of it.