Astra and Opus just passed Turing’s other test
Astra and Opus LLMs cracked long‑unsolved Enigma messages in days, a feat that would take humans weeks.
Why Now
Cryptanalysts used OpenAI’s Astra and Anthropic’s Opus 5 to decode archival Enigma messages that had remained unsolved since 2005.
What Happened
Carter Leffen prompted Astra to search a database, build an Enigma simulator, and recover a 2005‑unsolved plaintext. Jack Willis guided Opus 5 to break a different message using a known officer’s name signature. Seven unsolved Enigma messages remain, plus one with known plaintext but unbroken code.
Why It Matters
LLMs can now perform deep cryptanalysis and archival research faster than humans, accelerating historical decoding and potentially aiding modern code‑breaking tasks. It shows AI’s growing capability to access and synthesize large, obscure datasets.
The Limitation
The successes rely on curated databases and may not generalize to unknown or highly noisy ciphertexts; the models’ internal data sources are opaque.
What You Can Do
Try using an LLM to explore other historical cipher archives or test its cryptanalytic abilities on your own puzzles.
Source
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Highlights a new frontier AI model achieving a significant milestone.