Two AI models, OpenAI's Astra and Anthropic's Opus, were used by cryptanalysts to crack long-unsolved Enigma cipher messages that had baffled researchers since 2005. Carter Leffen instructed Astra to search and decode an unbroken message, with the model conducting archival research, building an Enigma simulator, and recovering plaintext. The solution was independently validated by Frode Weierud, who expressed being in awe of the achievement.
Background
Alan Turing and his team used the Bombe computer to crack Nazi Enigma codes during WWII, but some messages remain unsolved due to encoding errors. This represents a notable demonstration of LLMs performing complex historical cryptanalysis tasks that previously required human expertise.
- Source
- TechCrunch
- Published
- Sep 26, 2026 at 01:24 AM
- Score
- 6.0 / 10