‘Grandmaslop’ trend sees grandparents fill family albums with AI images, stirring generational divide

The trend is one of the unexpected consequences of freely available tools such as Gemini, Claude and ChatGPT, according to TechRadar. Grandparents are filling family albums with AI versions of pictures of their grandchildren, the report said, and the reaction from parents has been sharply divided.

On Reddit, one user who identified as Gen X said their Boomer mother made a whole AI book for both of their children. 'It was bizarre,' the user said. Another asked: 'I think the weirdest part is, if photos are our way of immortalizing a moment in time for the sake of our memories, then what is an AI-generated image, if it's a moment of time that never existed?'

The ease of use of AI tools means grandparents are also creating whole storybooks featuring their grandchildren and emailing them to their children, TechRadar reported. 'The books are crap, all have the same AI slop cartoon styling and the stories make no sense and have horrible meter,' another Reddit user said. 'One was a rhyming book that had words that didn't rhyme.'

TechRadar said the phenomenon illustrates a generational split in approaches to AI. One user suggested that for many people the concept and proof of a relationship is more important than the execution of an art project. Another agreed and added wryly, 'My father is the proudest grandparent in the world. He tells everyone how much he loves the grandkids he never sees, so that tracks.'

The divide appears more complicated than family photo habits alone. A Randstad report measuring AI adoption rates in the workplace put Millennials as the quickest adopters, with 50% using AI compared with 19% of Boomers and 34% of Gen X, according to TechRadar. When it comes to their children, however, Millennials would rather leave AI out of the picture, TechRadar said.

The Reddit thread also descended into broader grievances about the effort grandparents show with their grandchildren, TechRadar reported. One user wrote: 'My parents never miss an opportunity to say how much they miss the grandkids and wish they could see them more often, and it takes every ounce of my strength not to point out they're both retired and in good health, have $80k/yr worth of pensions and social security, investment accounts worth close to $1mm, and live in a paid-off house.'

TechRadar said the visceral reaction to 'grandmaslop' may be the most visible tip of a larger iceberg of resentment about the lack of effort put into grandparenting, and a generational divide that is as economic and cultural as it is related to AI. The report noted that there is nothing inherently wrong with a grandparent making a silly AI picture of a grandchild riding a dinosaur or flying through space, and some children will probably love it. But when an AI-generated storybook arrives from a grandparent who rarely turns up in person, it can start to look like another shortcut. The problem, the report suggested, is not really that Grandma has discovered ChatGPT; it is that generative AI has made it possible to simulate the effort some parents wish their children were getting for real.