A cipher dating to 1809, written by Napoleon's nephew, has been cracked by artificial intelligence, according to security researcher Bruce Schneier. The code had apparently resisted previous attempts at conventional cryptanalysis, making the AI's success a notable milestone in the study of historical ciphers.
Schneier's report adds to a growing list of old codes and ciphers that have yielded to machine-learning techniques. Rather than relying on known keys or linguistic rules, the AI appears to have identified patterns in the encrypted text that human analysts missed.
The episode is significant not because the cipher itself held state secrets, but because it demonstrates how AI is becoming a powerful tool for cryptanalysis. As Schneier notes, the fall of another historic cipher to AI is part of a broader trend that may eventually have implications for modern encryption as well.