Amateurs are cracking history’s secret codes with AI (opens the source in a new tab)
- Nature reports that non-experts are using AI models on historical ciphers. One user had GPT-6 Astra decode an 82-character Enigma message from 1941; the model tested over four billion settings in ten hours.
- Another used it on an 1809 letter to one of Napoleon’s generals, and the decoded text described troop locations. Both results went to specialists for verification.
- Specialists welcome the interest but are swamped by false positives, since models can invent plausible text. They urge checking historical context and asking an expert before claiming a solve.
- 4bn+
- Enigma settings tested
- 10 hrs
- for the AI run
- 85 yrs
- the message stayed unsolved
Why it matters AI turns a niche skill into a weekend project, which is good for history and hard on the people who must verify results. Cheap answers make expert checking the scarce resource.
Other side The models do best on well-understood systems like Enigma, and one of the experiments could have been solved without AI. Rarer ciphers still defeat them.
Source:Nature (free to read) ↗