PicsArt, the leading creative platform and app for social storytelling, announced that it has opened the PicsArt AI Lab in Moscow. The Lab will enable the company to further its leadership in AI and Machine Learning and identify new and innovative uses for the tech. With more than 100 million monthly active users creating, remixing and sharing nearly one billion images and videos every month, PicsArt is one of largest commercial applications of AI in the world.

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The company plans to make a significant investment to hire the best AI talent in the region. Funds will also go toward R&D in partnership with the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), one of the world’s leading universities in this space. The new AI Lab team will work on enhancements of PicsArt’s existing AI-based features such as visual transformation, segmentation and classification of images, user behavior prediction and content recommendation, as well as incubating new, cutting-edge applications.

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“PicsArt is a fun, lightweight app that millions of people use every day to create moments and share their passions. In order to enable these fun, easy and awesome creations, we have to invest in the serious tech behind it,” said Hovhannes Avoyan, PicsArt CEO and co-founder. “Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are key to making photo and video editing easy and intuitive while surfacing the most relevant content for people. Our investment in a Russia-based AI Lab and tech talent is just the start. In the near future, we plan to further explore and expand our investments in this space.”

Founded by entrepreneur Hovhannes Avoyan, PicsArt is backed by Sequoia Capital and is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Los Angeles, Beijing and Yerevan, Armenia. PicsArt AI Lab will be based in downtown Moscow.

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