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OpenAI algorithm for the FFT is less a breakthrough and more a malicious exploit

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Hacker News | Oct 13, 2026 | mochomocha

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With the bookkeeping, the FFT computes a length-n Fourier transform in fewer than 5 n log2 n arithmetic operations. To make this acceleration concrete, when n is 1,000, n^2 is 1,000,000 and 5 * n log n is around 50,000, a 20-fold speedup. An algorithm that requires n + 1080 is also considered a linear time algorithm in the big-O regime. But given the constants, the algorithm runs faster only when n is impossibly large.

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