{"id":23037,"date":"2026-10-16T08:01:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T08:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?p=23037"},"modified":"2026-10-16T08:01:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T08:01:45","slug":"mixed-feelings-ai-cracks-centuries-old-ciphers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?p=23037","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Mixed feelings&#8217;: AI cracks centuries-old ciphers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <div style=\"display: grid; grid-template-columns: 300px 160px; gap: 2px; width: 460px; background: #eee; padding: 2px;\">\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u6574\u884c\u5bbd\u5e7f\u544a -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column: 1\/-1; width: 460px; height: 250px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876674\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column: 1\/-1; width: 460px; height: 90px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876676\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u5de6\u4fa7\u7ad6\u6392 -->\r\n  <div style=\"height: 250px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876672\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div style=\"height: 500px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876680\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u53f3\u4fa7\u6469\u5929\u697c\uff08\u548c\u5de6\u4fa7\u5b8c\u5168\u5bf9\u9f50\uff09 -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-row: 3\/5; height: 750px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876678\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  \r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e6\" data-zoneid=\"5876682\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n<\/div><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-right:0;padding-left:0\">\n<p>Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the wartime missive written in code, creating a puzzle that went unsolved for more than 200 years \u2014 until AI cracked it in a matter of hours.<\/p>\n<p>Artificial intelligence is helping non-specialists unlock the secrets of historical sources, a trend described as a \u201cturning point\u201d in a field previously the preserve of scholars and dedicated hobbyists.<\/p>\n<p>One new sleuth is Carter Church, a 27-year-old AI engineer who decrypted a 19th-century letter to one of Napoleon\u2019s generals.<\/p>\n<p>Without digital tools, the task could have taken weeks, but the latest model from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI broke the cipher in just six hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat AI mostly brings is persistence,\u201d Church told AFP, saying he felt \u201can unbelievable sense of satisfaction and excitement when I saw the result\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The message from 1809 \u2014 detailing French and allied troops\u2019 positions in two dozen lines of symbols, numbers and letters \u2014 had\u00a0lain ignored in an online academic archive.<\/p>\n<p>Because traditional, low-tech methods to crack ciphers are effective but time- and labour-intensive, historians \u201chave more important problems to solve, so many ciphers like this often sit unattended\u201d, said Church.<\/p>\n<p>To find the solution, Church, who works at US cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, needed to learn \u201cvery little\u201d about code-breaking techniques or the historical period.<\/p>\n<p>He spent some evenings going over it, then consulted Japanese patent engineer Satoshi Tomokiyo, who maintains an online list of unsolved ciphers, to verify it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c2026 will be remembered as a turning point for codebreaking of historical ciphers,\u201d Tomokiyo wrote on his website Cryptiana, a go-to resource for the small but enthusiastic global community of amateur cryptographers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 \u2018Mixed feelings\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Researchers were already developing AI models to break ciphers, but the public release of state-of-the-art generalist tools has unleashed dozens of new solutions.<\/p>\n<p>Although Church used OpenAI\u2019s most powerful model, GPT-6 Astra, other people have used top offerings from rival US lab Anthropic instead.<\/p>\n<p>Tomokiyo said that since mid-September, most of the ciphers on his list have been cracked using AI.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere remain some tough problems\u201d which could stay an enigma for years to come, because there is less relevant data available to help AI figure them out, the 58-year-old told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m excited long-time problems are now solved, but on the other hand, I have mixed feelings, because AI seems to have solved these difficult problems so easily,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>With technology draining the satisfaction of being first to crack a cipher, a fellow code-breaker told Tomokiyo: \u201cI feel useless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>AI is surpassing human abilities in pursuits from mathematics to computer programming, while threatening to alter or even eradicate many jobs.<\/p>\n<p>The technology is transforming the work of historians not only by decoding documents, but also by analysing millions of medieval manuscripts or helping read ancient scrolls.<\/p>\n<p>Too fragile to be unrolled without risking destruction, the Herculaneum Papyri \u2014 hundreds of papyrus scrolls carbonised in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD \u2014 are now being X-rayed and analysed by AI to reveal the hidden writing inside.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers in Italy announced in June the first complete virtual unrolling of a scroll, which turned out to be a treatise on ethics.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 \u2018Facebook of the past\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>AI is also being used to build a huge, searchable collection of previously inaccessible sources on Jewish history and culture by transcribing 10 million pages of Hebrew manuscripts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s gigantic. No human being could process such a quantity\u201d of data, said project leader Daniel Stoekl Ben Ezra, of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers hope the databases created using the digitised text \u2014 which he likens to a kind of \u201chuge Facebook of the past\u201d \u2014 could help bring to light links between people, places and ideas.<\/p>\n<p>And at the French capital\u2019s Notre Dame Cathedral, an AI system has been trained to transcribe 14,600 Latin pages from the church\u2019s medieval archives \u2014 a task not dissimilar to code-breaking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are minutes drawn up by notaries who abbreviate their decisions. The script is highly administrative, very pragmatic\u2026 with rather technical vocabulary,\u201d said historian Julie Claustre, who leads the e-NDP project.<\/p>\n<p>With character recognition rates ranging between 88 and 94 percent, the project has revealed information about the cathedral\u2019s daily life, its building work, its staff and the care of abandoned children.<\/p>\n<p>Doing the same by hand would take \u201cseveral decades\u201d, said Claustre, but \u201cit\u2019s not just a time-saver\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Automation enables \u201cinquiries that were not previously possible; it transforms the conditions of research.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- \u603b\u5bb9\u5668\uff1a\u6700\u5927\u5bbd908px Grid\u7d27\u51d1\u5e03\u5c40 -->\r\n<div style=\"display: grid; grid-template-columns: 728px 160px; gap:2px; width:908px; background:#eee; padding:2px;\">\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u901a\u680f\u9876\u90e8\uff1a\u6700\u5927\u6a2a\u5e45 908x258 \u8de8\u6574\u884c -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column:1\/-1; height:258px; background:#ff6b6b; display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n    <!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114307\" data-width=\"908\" data-height=\"258\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114307});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u7b2c\u4e8c\u901a\u680f\uff1a728\u00d790 \u901a\u680f -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column:1\/-1; height:90px; background:#4ecdc4; display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n    <!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114300\" data-width=\"728\" data-height=\"90\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114300});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u5de6\u4fa7\u4e3b\u680f\uff1a\u591a\u5e7f\u544a\u5806\u53e0 -->\r\n  <div style=\"display:grid; gap:2px;\">\r\n    <div style=\"height:60px; background:#45b7d1; display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n\t<!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114308\" data-width=\"468\" data-height=\"60\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114308});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n    <div style=\"height:250px; background:#ffe066; display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n\t<!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114299\" data-width=\"300\" data-height=\"250\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114299});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n    <div style=\"height:250px; background:#ff9ecd; display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n\t<!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114305\" data-width=\"250\" data-height=\"250\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114305});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n    <div style=\"height:139px; background:#c792ea; display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n\t<!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114302\" data-width=\"133\" data-height=\"139\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114302});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n    <div style=\"height:125px; background:#91e7ac; display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n\t\r\n<!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114303\" data-width=\"125\" data-height=\"125\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114303});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u53f3\u4fa7\u7ad6\u680f\uff1a160\u00d7600 \u6574\u5217\u9ad8\u5e7f\u544a -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-row:3\/8; height:600px;  display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n    <!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114301\" data-width=\"160\" data-height=\"600\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114301});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n<\/div><br \/>\n<br \/> &#8216;Mixed feelings&#8217;: AI cracks centuries-old ciphers<br \/>\n<br \/>#Mixed #feelings #cracks #centuriesold #ciphers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the wartime missive written in code, creating a puzzle that went unsolved&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[16813,16814,11751,988,2747],"class_list":["post-23037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-centuriesold","tag-ciphers","tag-cracks","tag-feelings","tag-mixed"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7.jpg",768,512,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7.jpg",640,427,false],"large":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7.jpg",640,427,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7.jpg",768,512,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7.jpg",768,512,false],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7.jpg",768,512,false],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7-768x500.jpg",768,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7.jpg",768,512,false],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7-540x340.jpg",540,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/38b04c5ec842a30aa2937f336fb4ef8e55be13c7-400x250.jpg",400,250,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?cat=7\" rel=\"category\">Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}