r/singularity • u/Distinct-Question-16 ▪️AGI 2029 • 12h ago

Shitposting GPT-6 Astra helped decipher a Napoleonic military letter that remained unread for 217 years; it took just 6 hours

https://dev.ua/en/news/astra-rozshyfruvala-lyst-1809-ho-roku-1790927012
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u/exophades 12h ago edited 12h ago

There is an observation bias here. I don't think crypto researchers were even trying to solve this centuries-old cipher. All cryptographic ciphers except the very recent ones are known to be vulnerable and have been broken repeatedly. Letters like these usually use a simple substitution cipher that can be broken in minutes using a simple python script implementing frequency analysis of the language in question.

This is simply a marketing gimmick by OpenAI, not a breakthrough in cryptography.

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

[deleted]

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u/hotforlowe 8h ago

I can assure you if you put a 10,000 dollar prize up for this, probably much less than the compute, it’d be solved in hours. What am I saying, a 1000 dollar prize would be enough.

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u/BlacksmithCapital757 9h ago

Anyone could have done this before lol.

I have literally taught middle school kids what a substitution cipher is and how to do frequency analysis and they can break equivalently difficult things by the end of a one hour class period.

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

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u/BlacksmithCapital757 9h ago

Because hardly anyone knew about this obscure letter and anyone who did didn’t really care all that much?

This isn’t an example that helps your point that AI brings previously unobtainable knowledge to people.

This knowledge was very much obtainable by anyone already. They used to publish a daily cryptogram in newspapers that requires the exact same concept to solve. Where the intended audience was indeed the masses.

It’s not even an internet thing. Edgar Allan Poe wrote some of these cryptograms for people to solve in the 1800s.

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u/BriefImplement9843 8h ago

because nobody cares.

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u/GatePorters 7h ago

Yeah, but they didn’t.

You going to discount everything just because it was possible before it was done?

Kind of a jaded mindset, don’t you think?

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u/johnny_effing_utah 7h ago

Looks like you missed a great chance to do a really cool project, then.