Two code breakers used AI models to crack long-unsolved messages made by Nazi Germany's Enigma machines. A developer named Carter Leffen asked OpenAI's Astra to find and decode a message that experts had failed to break since 2005.
The model did its own research, built a simulator, and found the answer. Another analyst, Jack Willis, used Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 to break a different message.
π The Backstory
Alan Turing and his team built an early computer called the Bombe to read Enigma messages during World War II. A few messages stayed unbroken, often because of typos by the original senders.
Frode Weierud, who runs the Crypto Cellar website, checked Leffen's answer last week and said it left him in awe. He noted the AI did in two days what takes a human weeks or months.
π― Why It Matters
AI is now solving hard puzzles that stumped experts for decades. This shows how powerful these tools have become, and how they might help in science and research.
Two code breakers used AI models to crack long-unsolved messages made by Nazi Germany's Enigma machines. A developer named Carter Leffen asked OpenAI's Astra to find and decode a message that experts had failed to break since 2005.
The model did its own research, built a simulator, and found the answer. Another analyst, Jack Willis, used Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 to break a different message.
Alan Turing and his team built an early computer called the Bombe to read Enigma messages during World War II. A few messages stayed unbroken, often because of typos by the original senders.
Frode Weierud, who runs the Crypto Cellar website, checked Leffen's answer last week and said it left him in awe. He noted the AI did in two days what takes a human weeks or months.
AI is now solving hard puzzles that stumped experts for decades. This shows how powerful these tools have become, and how they might help in science and research.