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How AI settled the complexity of the oldest SGD algorithm

Machine Learning 2026-06-28 v1 Artificial Intelligence Numerical Analysis Optimization and Control Machine Learning

Abstract

In 1937, Stefan Kaczmarz proposed a simple algorithm for solving systems of linear equations. This algorithm turned out to be the earliest known example of stochastic gradient descent, a ubiquitous computing paradigm that drives the training of modern AI models such as ChatGPT and Gemini. Now, those AI models have joined forces to discover the worst-case complexity of the Kaczmarz algorithm. This paper tells the story of how it happened.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2606.29593,
  title  = {How AI settled the complexity of the oldest SGD algorithm},
  author = {Michał Dereziński and Xiaoyu Dong},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.29593},
  year   = {2026}
}