MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 9, 2026--
Picsart, a leading AI-powered design platform empowering the next era of creators with over 130M+ monthly users, today launched AI Playground, a comprehensive AI generation hub featuring 90+ models from 24 providers. Built directly into Picsart's creative ecosystem, AI Playground eliminates subscription fragmentation by offering pay-per-generation credits with transparent pricing and seamless workflow integration.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260309495014/en/
Creators that require access to leading AI models typically manage multiple subscriptions across separate platforms. Mid-tier plans from 11 leading providers cost over $3,300 annually, with most subscriptions sitting idle between projects. 1 Picsart’s AI Playground consolidates access to Google VEO 3.1, OpenAI Sora 2, Runway Gen4.5, Kling 3.0, ElevenLabs, and dozens more behind one prompt bar, with credits charged only for what creators generate.
Hovhannes Avoyan, Founder and CEO of Picsart, said: "Our commitment is simple: give creators access to the best AI technology available, without barriers. No one should need ten logins and pay thousands of dollars in subscriptions to do their best work. AI Playground has been built with our millions of customers in mind, consolidating cutting-edge models into Picsart, so people can focus on creating, not managing tools."
AI Playground is embedded within the platform, generating video and images which open directly in the editor, ready for additional enhancements. The Auto Mode selects the optimal model based on creator intent rather than manual selection; cross-provider video chaining allows creators to start clips with one model and extend them with others, creating sequences up to 148 seconds. Side-by-side comparison runs the same prompt across multiple models simultaneously for instant evaluation while transparent pricing displays exact credit costs on the Generate button as parameters change.
Every result auto-saves to Picsart Drive with searchable filenames and full parameter metadata, while Brand Kit integration pulls brand assets directly into generation as reference images. Post-processing capabilities like background removal, upscaling, and video frame capture are built in, eliminating the need for separate tools.
At launch, AI Playground is now live with an extensive range of video models (Google VEO 3.1, OpenAI Sora 2, Kling 3.0, Runway Gen4.5, Luma Ray), image models (GPT Image, Flux Kontext, Ideogram, Recraft), and audio models (ElevenLabs and others). Picsart is committed to keep AI Playground updated with the latest industry models, it is set to be updated weekly with newest models on the market, ensuring creators always have access to the latest AI capabilities in one place.
This launch follows Picsart's recent milestone of surpassing 2.5 billion lifetime downloads and product debuts including Persona, Aura and Flow.
AI Playground is available now at picsart.com, on mobile and web.
Notes to Editors
About Picsart
Picsart is a recognized AI-powered platform for creative independence in a global economy increasingly driven and impacted by content. For over 14 years, Picsart has grown with and enabled the next generation of storytellers - Gen Z digital natives - to design, brand, and build at scale without limitations or barriers. With approximately 130+ million monthly active users and over 2.5 billion downloads, Picsart is well on its way to becoming the creative engine behind the $750 billion market of small businesses, entrepreneurs and brands, offering a range of innovative and intuitive tools and solutions that revolutionizes the creative, marketing and advertising processes. As creativity becomes central to identity, influence, entrepreneurship and profitability, Picsart is the platform for scalable, self-directed storytelling in a content-first economy.
Picsart, a leading AI-powered design platform, launches AI Playground - a comprehensive AI generation hub featuring 90+ models from 24 providers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats called for investigations Wednesday into renovations at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, as the ongoing drama over the president’s problem-plagued, $16 million rehabilitation project continued to roil the capital.
Lawmakers in the House and Senate demanded answers about the saga that's been highlighted in the news cycle for weeks, even as the White House has repeatedly blamed — without evidence — unidentified vandals for peeling paint and other problems. Six people have been arrested, President Donald Trump said, without providing details, and a local wildlife nonprofit conducted necropsies on dead ducks found near the Reflecting Pool. The president has said the pool may need to be drained once again for additional repairs.
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, challenged the Trump administration over no-bid contracts for work on the Reflecting Pool, saying they were awarded to vendors with previous relationships to Trump.
National Park Service projects undertaken at Trump’s behest in the Washington area “have been marked by blatant corruption, a shocking lack of transparency, disregard for legal requirements and apparent incompetence,” Blumenthal wrote Wednesday in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Jessica Bowron, the acting Park Service director.
“Rushed no-bid contracts given to unqualified vendors with previous relationships to the president resulted in a reflecting pool more covered with algae than before, with freshly painted chunks of paint peeling from the bottom to float on the pool’s surface,” Blumenthal said.
The nation's capital “will now celebrate America's 250th birthday with an empty reflecting pool, a testament to incompetence and corruption,” he added.
Ohio-based Green Water Solutions was given a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system in the Reflecting Pool, while Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.
Both contractors have ties to Trump entities, said California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
“Donald Trump’s disastrous renovation of our national reflecting pool is his latest failed vanity project,” Garcia said, calling the projects a waste of taxpayer money.
Trump pledged to beautify the century-old Reflecting Pool ahead of the nation's 250th birthday celebrations, draining its water and directing the bottom to be painted a color he dubbed “American flag blue.” But since the site was restored, its water has been plagued by an algae bloom and pieces of the new coating have appeared to be peeling off the bottom.
Without evidence, Trump has repeatedly blamed the peeling paint on vandalism, including a “350-foot gash” in the liner, as the administration faces a self-imposed deadline to complete the renovation before July 4th. Trump also has said the federal government would release images to substantiate his claim.
Trump said Wednesday that “sick people” had used razors and box cutters to slice portions of the lining. He wasn’t sure if the pool draining would come before or after the July 4 holiday, during which tens of thousands of people will be at the National Mall.
The U.S. Park Police posted surveillance footage Wednesday evening and asked for help “identifying the individual depicted here in connection with a Destruction of Government Property investigation.” The grainy, 30-second video appears to show a person kneeling down, reaching into the reflecting pool and removing something from the water. Police said it was taken Friday afternoon.
A White House spokeswoman it’s “a shame that Democrats do not think the capital of the greatest nation in the history of the world deserves to be safe and beautiful.”
Trump “generously spearheaded the restoration of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which has long been plagued with algae and leaked 16 million gallons of water per year. The president’s efforts to beautify our nation’s capital are supported by Americans across the country and should be praised by both Republicans and Democrats,″ spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said.
A spokeswoman for Green Water Solutions, also known as Greenwater Services, said Wednesday the company uses devices called nanobubblers to infuse ozone into the water to kill algae and bacteria. The process is “functioning perfectly” and the water looked clear and blue Wednesday, after rain muddled it Tuesday, spokeswoman Erin Kramer said.
“The water is clear. What is visible is the sediment on the pool floor, a natural part of the remediation process when the algae dies,” she said. In a lake or river, that sediment is absorbed, but in a pool it needs to be vacuumed, she said.
The company is owned by John Cafaro, a Trump donor who lives near Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private club in Florida.
Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which spread blue sealant across the pool’s concrete floor, is owned by Curtis “Eddie” Wood. The company said this week it has identified some areas in the Reflecting Pool that require repairs, adding that the work will done once the pool is drained. It was unclear when that will happen.
Amid the calls for investigations, Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado called for Trump to personally reimburse American taxpayers for the pool renovations, which he called “a national embarrassment.”
Americans expect their tax dollars “to fix roads, support schools and protect our public lands,” Hickenlooper wrote in a letter to Trump. “They do not expect to bankroll failed presidential vanity projects. The bill for this fiasco should only belong to you, Mr. President.”
Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard contributed to this story.
Different shades of colors are seen on the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
A duck swims across the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
A white substance is pumped into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
A duck and ducklings swim in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Visitors take a selfie at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
A white substance is pumped into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
