Real-Time AI is Coming. But First, We Have to Solve Latency.

PolarGrid President Rade Kovacevic recently joined The BetaKit Podcast to talk about a challenge at the heart of generative AI: latency.

From mind-blowing image generation to shockingly good language models, GenAI seems to advance daily. But when it comes to real-time experiences like voice and video, the tech still stumbles.

Kovacevic puts it simply:

“How do I create the ‘wow’ moment for my end user? Slowness never creates the wow moment.”

Whether you’re chatting with Siri or trying a voice interaction with ChatGPT, the lag is real. These applications aren’t fast enough yet to feel like true conversation. And it’s not just voice — many next-gen AI features are held back by current infrastructure. That’s the problem PolarGrid is solving.

AI’s “GeoCities” Era

Kovacevic likens today’s AI to the early internet: novel, exciting, but not yet seamless. Like waiting for an image to load in the ’90s, users today are waiting for AI to catch up to their expectations.

PolarGrid is building the edge computing infrastructure that will make real-time GenAI possible, deploying GPUs closer to end users in cities like Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. Rather than replace cloud hyperscalers, PolarGrid works alongside them, filling a critical gap: delivering ultra-low latency for applications where every millisecond counts.

Voice and Video Will Be the Killer Apps

Once AI can respond in real-time, Kovacevic believes voice and video will become the dominant interfaces. Imagine instant, intelligent virtual agents, or AI-enhanced live collaboration — no lag, no wait, just fluid interaction.

This isn’t a distant vision. PolarGrid’s live nodes in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal are already delivering sub-400ms end-to-end voice pipelines. The infrastructure exists. The challenge now is distribution — getting nodes close enough to every user that the speed-of-light tax becomes negligible.

Read the full interview at: betakit.com/the-canadian-company-solving-ais-latency-problem/