GPT-6 Astra Solves a WWI German Radio Cipher

	GPT-6 Astra Solves a WWI German Radio Cipher(prinzai.com)
	389 points by nsoonhui 25 days ago \| 177 comments
	tl;dr: A GPT-6 model ("Astra") reportedly decrypted a previously unsolved WWI German ADFGVX cipher from November 27, 1918, revealing a message about an English cruiser arriving at Sevastopol and an allied squadron following on the 26th. The model identified "TRUPPENVERSCHIEBUNG" as the key—unusual because that key was officially in use starting December 9, 1918—and verified the plaintext against historical records showing HMS Canterbury did arrive in Sevastopol on November 24, 1918.
	HN Discussion: ↑AI agents make cracking such unsolved ciphers easy, with much low-hanging fruit available ↓The headline overstates the achievement since an existing published key was used ↓The model may have cheated by finding the solution or ship logs in its training data ↓The cipher seems trivial with a dictionary attack since the key is a real German word •Curiosity about historical context of the message, such as why Germany was monitoring the Black Sea post-war