Napoleon's 217-year-old secret letter was deciphered with artificial intelligence
The code of a secret military letter from the Napoleon Bonaparte period, which has not been deciphered for more than two centuries, was deciphered in six hours with the help of artificial intelligence.
Quick Look
The secret military letter sent by Napoleon Bonaparte to General Auguste de Marmont in 1809, which has remained undeciphered to this day, was deciphered by artificial intelligence engineer Carter Church in six hours.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
The military letter sent by Napoleon Bonaparte to General Auguste de Marmont in 1809 could not be read fully because it could not be deciphered in the intervening 217 years.
The code of a secret military letter from the Napoleon Bonaparte period, which has not been deciphered for more than two centuries, has been deciphered with the help of artificial intelligence.
It turned out that the letter dated 1809 contained information about highly secret troop movements before the war between France and Austria.
The letter was sent by Napoleon to General Auguste de Marmont. While the correspondence contained information about the strength and positions of the French and Austrian forces, Marmont was asked to prepare for the march.
Napoleon also instructed his general not to be intimidated by “a few troops or a group of mobs.”
The deciphering of the letter is important for historians as it shows how Napoleon communicated with his generals before a critical campaign.
Marmont later took action with his troops in the region that is today within the borders of Croatia and supported Napoleon's victory over Austria. Marmont was promoted to marshal after this process.
PASSWORD DECODED IN SIX HOURS
The decryption was done by artificial intelligence engineer Carter Church, working at cyber security company SentinelOne.
The text, consisting of approximately 1300 characters, was made fully readable for the first time with the help of artificial intelligence.
While it was stated that the original encryption key of the letter was lost over time, it was stated that the system used was quite complex. Some symbols represented a single letter, some directly represented a word.
Artificial intelligence first transferred the symbols to text and compared them with previously deciphered code fragments. Then he tried to reach meaningful text by trying millions of possible word combinations.
It was stated that the process took approximately six hours.
NOT COMPLETELY RESOLVED FOR 217 YEARS
Church said he had never cracked a historical military code before.
He stated that he started the study by being inspired by the decryption of an encrypted German military message from 1941 with the help of artificial intelligence.
According to experts, the password in question could theoretically be deciphered by human cryptologists. However, it is estimated that this will require a very long and laborious work.
In the 217 years since the letter was written, no cryptologist has been able to fully decipher the code.
Open Questions
- How will the detailed military plans in the letter contribute to history?
