ChatGPT-6 Astra cracks 217-year-old Napoleonic code in just six hours
An AI engineer used GPT-6 Astra to reveal the contents of a cipher that hadn’t been read since the Napoleonic Wars. The task was initiated with a single image and prompt, and took just six hours from start to finish.
Carter Church, an AI engineer at SentinelOne, utilized GPT-6 Astra to decipher a 217-year-old cipher that had remained unread since the Napoleonic Wars. The cipher, found among Cryptiana's Unsolved Historical Ciphers list, took only six hours for Astra to crack after being given a single image and prompt. Church shared the complete solution package, including a script to regenerate the decryption, on his blog.
The deciphered message, not directly from Napoleon, came from Eugène de Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy (Napoleon’s stepson) and was a troop briefing to French General Auguste de Marmont, relaying Napoleon's orders. The newly deciphered text fills in missing context from Napoleon’s 1865 memoir, which breaks off mid-sentence indicating Marmont must not be delayed by a few individuals.
Cryptiana's Unsolved Historical Ciphers page completes this sentence with "a gathering of rabble." The AI's solution was partially based on a previously unconnected partial key, and it completed the multi-modal workflow within six hours using simulated-annealing solver. The deciphered letter's authenticity is verified by Satoshi Tomokiyo, who maintains the database, and can be independently tested using the published solution package.
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