ai-ethics · 9/9/2025
From Pakoras to AI
Why our Grandparents need AI Education too.
How Would You Explain AI to Your Grandma?
While chatting with my Nani (my grandmother) over lunch, I realized that in the past few years, the content my Nani scrolls through on Facebook and Instagram has shifted significantly from real, human-generated videos to AI-generated ones. With this shift comes a large grey area of content that is created for fun, shared as jokes, or used for fearmongering.
As I continued chatting with my friends whose older adult parents or grandparents also use social media, I noticed the concern was the same. Some took it lightheartedly, while others saw the major risks in it. A video of babies making knock-knock jokes may not seem concerning today, but when AI-generated videos depicting violence, natural disasters, or promoting political parties begin appearing repeatedly on our grandparents’ phones, amplified by reinforcement algorithms that personalize our feeds, it becomes a serious issue.
In such situations, what do we do? Education and information are essential. We have to teach them what AI is. It may seem mystical and confusing, as it does to many, but it is our responsibility to help them understand it. Especially for those of us who work in this space, it’s important to explain it to them and remind them not to believe everything they see online.
I am taking the time to teach my Nani how to spot whether a video is AI-generated. I remind her:
- To not believe everything on her timeline
- To go a step further by asking Siri to fact-check what she sees on her phone.
Teach them through analogies and examples. I tell her its like when you fry pakoras. The first time, you follow a recipe, but after making them many times, you just know how much water or how many spices feel right. AI learns similarly, but with information called data instead of flour and salt.
Inform them that AI helps doctors find diseases earlier, farmers grow crops better, scientists discover new medicines, and can even help them find recipes by simply telling it what ingredients are in their fridge (based on their diet, grandparents, we are watching that sugar container)!
AI is taught to learn and understand without emotions, so it can be our smart helper if we use it in the right way.
As AI becomes a part of everyday life, teaching our grandparents about it is not just helpful, it’s necessary.
They once taught us how to read, think, and navigate the world. Now, it’s our turn to guide them through the digital one.