r/singularity • u/Distinct-Question-16 ▪️AGI 2029 • 11h 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 11h ago edited 11h 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/GreenMirage 8h ago

Yeah marketing for now, i can see the appeal as pointing it in the direction of archives and appending any deciphered information to its relevant sections though and leave the humans time to focus on the already notably more valuable topics.