World War I Coded Message Appears Cracked, Finally
AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication
The ADFGVX cipher, a complex World‑I encryption introduced in 1918, has finally been deciphered by the artificial‑intelligence model GPT‑6 Astra. The cipher expands the earlier ADFGX system to a 6×6 grid that encodes letters and digits as paired coordinates, then applies a columnar transposition keyed by a secret word. While French cryptanalyst Georges Painvin broke the system during the war, a particular intercepted transmission dated 27 November 1918 remained unsolved. Astra identified the German key “TRUPPENVERSCHIEBUNG” and recovered a German report describing the movements of the British cruiser HMS Canterbury near Sevastopol. The decoded text aligns with known ship logs, confirming the message’s authenticity and revealing an earlier use of the key than previously documented and sheds light on early cipher deployment.
💡 Why It Matters
- · Uncovering the message proves AI can resolve century‑old cryptographic puzzles, opening archives that have long resisted human analysis.
