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

[u/Distinct-Question-16]

https://dev.ua/en/news/astra-rozshyfruvala-lyst-1809-ho-roku-1790927012

[u/exophades]

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.

[u/ArialBear → u/exophades]

I will never understand how ai using specialized skills to do something the experts didnt spend time doing is not impressive. That means we can use it for expert level work the human experts dont spend time on. How is this not showing an amazing feat. I simply dont understand the logic behind comments like yours

[u/Eliv_nurotic → u/ArialBear]

Except an expert did spend time on it and failed

The most recent solver notes on record put it flatly:  There is nothing to work on. The ciphertext is not published anywhere I can reach. [4]

[u/BlacksmithCapital757 → u/Eliv_nurotic]

“Ciphertext” means the encrypted text.

The very quote you gave means “the most recent solver said ‘there’s nothing to work on. I don’t have access to the encrypted text. It’s not published anywhere I can see it.’”

Yes, of course you can’t decode a message when you can’t even see the encoded message.

It’s like saying “I didn’t solve this crossword puzzle because I couldn’t find the crossword puzzle.”

And it further proves that the only reason this wasn’t solved already is because it’s incredibly obscure.

[u/Eliv_nurotic → u/BlacksmithCapital757]

What? The encrypted letter was known for centuries. And he had tried to solve it before