Granny Bytes

Concept

Granny Bytes explores intergenerational connections and how they can manifest within our interactions with technology. It investigates how AI-mediated interactions can either widen or close the gap between younger and older generations.

We were interested in how reframing AI as the familiar, caring presence of “Grandma” could create a sense of permanence in a relationship that can feel fleeting. This reframing also asks what shifts when a tool feels relational rather than transactional, and whether it can support a shared sense of community, preserve stories, and foster more lasting closeness across generations.

An application for lasting connection

Within the relationship of grandmothers and the youth, food is a big factor of unification, and so we decided to use cooking as the focus for mirroring this relationship– seeing how AI and cooking can be a facet of our humanity.

Granny Bytes helps you answer any questions you have as you cook recipes passed down through different generations.As of now, users are presented with 4 pre-written cultural recipes that have been passed down by each team members’ grandmothers.

Cooking with Granny Bytes

When clicking on a recipe, users are greeted with an interactive recipe guide with a section hosting the ingredients, the chat room where the grandmother lists the steps of the recipe one at a time and have users type in any questions they have about the step to which the grandmother responds before proceeding to the next step.

At the end the user can also send an image of their cooking for feedback to the AI powered grandmother to know how well they cooked it and things they could improve on. Chat with Granny Bytes on your next cooking adventure.

How can AI provide warmth and care?

The app simulates a sense of warmth, care and fostering in the way the grandmother responds to you. For the moments when you’re frantically searching how to make a recipe your grandmother used to make for you when you were little. For when you don’t understand the quantities required to make a dish because the recipe doesn’t mention it clearly. Most of all for when you’re missing your grandmother or craving a connection to your cultural roots.