As a teacher, I’m always looking for new and engaging ways to teach writing in the classroom and I thought – they’re using AI already, why not use it to my advantage? Recently, an intriguing resource popped up on my Instagram feed that I just had to try—Twinpics.AI, an AI-generated writing challenge.

The concept is simple yet engaging, writers are given an image and must craft a 200-character description, the AI then generates an image based on their description and scores it out of 100% for similarity to the original. It’s a fun way to practice descriptive writing, pushing students to be both vivid and precise in their word choices.

I introduced this tool in my Creative Writing 20 class during our descriptive writing lesson, and it was a hit! My students enjoyed the challenge, and some even turned it into a competition—trying to beat my highest score of 85% (the closest anyone got was 82%!). The competitive element added an extra layer of engagement and motivation.

One drawback I noticed is that the platform does not save or display the written description after generating the image. A few students forgot to copy their text before submitting, which meant they could only share their scores, not their actual writing. This was frustrating because the goal of the activity was to track their growth in descriptive writing, not just achieve a high score.

That being said, I appreciated how quick and easy this activity was to set up. To enhance the experience, I opted for a group subscription ($20.00 for the year), which allowed unlimited attempts and let us bypass the queue. Which I found was worth it during the time of the lesson, and I could use it in other lessons as well. I also shared it with other teachers to allow them the resource with same benefits! Although, if I didn’t have people to share it with, I don’t know if I would’ve have paid.

Overall, Twinpics.AI proved to be a valuable tool for teaching descriptive writing. It’s a great way to get students thinking critically about word choice while making the learning process interactive and fun. If you’re teaching descriptive writing or want students to practice their descriptive writing, I’d definitely recommend checking it out!