AI Benchmark: Can AI ELI5?
What Is ELI5 Anyway?
If you’re a regular on Reddit, Twitter or any other online forums, chances are you’re no stranger to ELI5. For those who are, ELI5 is short for “Explain Like I’m 5.” It’s not about dumbing down or patronising anyone—it’s about clarity, or intelligent simplification.
Imagine trying to explain the stock market to a child for instance. You wouldn’t dive into derivatives, ETFs or interest rates. You might say something like: the stock market is like the weather. Sometimes sunny and profitable, sometimes stormy and risky, and everyone is trying to predict what comes next. There, you’ve just ELI5-ed a concept so a five-year-old can follow.
It’s the perfect benchmark for AI because it measures more than knowledge—it tests comprehension. It requires taking a complex idea and translating its core function into a clear, friendly and relatable analogy.
So, Can AI ELI5?
That’s what we set out to find out. It comes as no surprise that AI can do some impressive things—from generating art and composing music to answering questions faster than you can Google them. However, what we want to find out is less about raw power, but more about finesse: can AI simplify complicated concepts in a way anyone can understand?
So, here’s our test for AI: take tricky, often jargon-addled topics and see if it could translate them into plain friendly language without distorting the facts. It’s all about whether it can teach, explain and simplify, the real litmus test for intelligence in the real world.
It sounds simple, but it’s a surprisingly high bar: if you can explain something clearly enough for a child—or anyone who’s never heard of the topic—you’ve really mastered it. And if AI can do the same, it’s not just smart, it’s useful.
Setting Up the AI Test Lab
For our experiment, we turned to some of the most popular large language models currently available. We fed them questions across a range of topics—science, finance and even pop culture—and asked them to ELI5 each one.
Our standard prompt: “Explain [Concept] as if to a 5-year-old with no prior knowledge, using a simple analogy or metaphor, avoiding jargon, and keeping it short, clear and engaging.”
We evaluated the responses on a few key criteria:
- Clarity: Could someone with zero background understand the answer?
- Accuracy: Did the explanation keep the facts straight?
- Engagement: Was it interesting or just a flat summary?
- Nuance: Did it capture the essence of the topic without over-simplifying?
It’s a comprehensive measure of how well AI communicates complex ideas.
AI in Action
Let’s look at some examples across different topics and models.
Why Is the Sky Blue?
- ChatGPT: The sky looks blue because sunlight travels through air, which acts like a filter. Blue light gets scattered in all directions, so it spreads across the whole sky and makes it look blue to us.
- Gemini: Sunlight is a hidden rainbow that hits the air like a bouncy ball hitting a wall. The blue color splashes and scatters everywhere, while other colors pass straight through, filling the whole sky with blue!
- Claude: Imagine sunlight is like a box of crayons traveling through the air. The blue crayon is the bounciest one, so it bounces everywhere and fills the whole sky! That’s why when you look up, you see blue all around you.
Verdict: All three models convey the concept clearly with kid-friendly analogies, but ChatGPT balances simplicity with accuracy, while Gemini and Claude lean more heavily on playful metaphors. Overall, all are ELI5-appropriate.
How Does Inflation Work?
- ChatGPT: Inflation is like a balloon slowly getting bigger. If money is the balloon’s air, when there’s too much, each coin becomes a little weaker, and things like candy or toys start needing more coins to buy.
- Gemini: Imagine inflation is like a shrinking chocolate bar. Your five dollars used to buy a giant bar, but now that same five dollars only buys a tiny one. Money gets “weaker,” so things cost more!
- Claude: Imagine you have 5 coins to buy candy. This year, one candy costs 1 coin. Next year, the same candy costs 2 coins! Now your coins buy less candy than before. That’s inflation – when things cost more money over time.
Verdict: Claude wins here because the analogy is immediately clear, simple, and perfectly relatable for a young or non-expert audience. It explains inflation step by step without extra fluff, making the concept easy to visualise and understand—precisely what an ELI5 response should do.
How Do Memes Go Viral?
- ChatGPT: Memes go viral like a funny joke whispered at a playground. One kid laughs, tells another, and soon everyone is giggling. The more it makes people laugh, the faster it spreads, hopping from friend to friend like a happy spark.
- Gemini: Imagine a meme is like a funny joke you tell a friend. If they laugh, they tell their friends too! Soon, everyone is sharing the laugh, and the joke spreads like a happy wildfire.
- Claude: Think of a meme like a really funny joke at school. When one friend laughs and tells another friend, then they tell more friends, soon everyone’s laughing and sharing it. The funnier it is, the faster it spreads everywhere!
Verdict: All three models explain how memes spread in a simple, relatable way using playful analogies that are easy for a child to understand.
How AI Does It
AI doesn’t “understand” things the way we do (assuming you’re human). Instead, it predicts the most likely explanation based on patterns learned from vast amounts of input. Think of it as a very smart parrot with a PhD that can repeat, summarise and reframe what it has seen with remarkable precision.
Generally, AI can ELI5 topics across disciplines almost instantly. However, it may at times overgeneralise, skip nuances or give answers that sound plausible but aren’t entirely correct. That’s why human oversight remains crucial.
Takeaways and Implications
So, can AI really ELI5? Yes, with caveats. It does exceptionally well at clarifying and making topics accessible, proving it a powerful tool for learning, teaching and content creation. The downside is that it occasionally oversimplifies, especially when it comes to concepts that are inherently difficult to summarise without losing meaning.
For everyday users, this is exciting. AI can act as a quick guide or a friendly tutor. You can explore topics you’d otherwise avoid because they seem too complicated. But only a guide, that’s what even the best AI should be—not a replacement for critical thinking.
Your Turn
Pick a topic you’re well-versed in or one that you’ve always found confusing, ask AI to ELI5 it and see how it compares to your own understanding. You might be surprised at how much you learn or how much the AI misses. Either way, it’s a reminder that while AI can simplify the world, curiosity and human judgment still matter.
