Building a real-time AI tutor for 5-year-olds

Developers building an AI tutor for young children discovered that sub-second response times are critical for maintaining engagement and learning, as even 2-3 second delays cause children's attention to wane. They abandoned the standard AI agent architecture (which relies on tool loops and causes latency issues) in favor of a real-time system that combines pedagogical principles with fast inference, recognizing that teaching young children requires both speed and the ability to make nuanced instructional decisions like knowing when to withhold answers.