# OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra cracks Napoleon cipher; Anthropic's Claude maps NSA elliptic seeds

Digest AI · Generative AI & Models · published 2026-10-19T07:35:00Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/openai-s-gpt-6-astra-cracks-napoleon-cipher-anthropic-s-claude-maps-ns

## Summary

OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra model was used by AI engineer Carter Church to decode a handwritten military cipher dated 1809, written by a general under Napoleon Bonaparte. The AI completed the task in six hours, a job that could have taken weeks by hand. Church told AFP that AI’s persistence was key, and patent engineer Satoshi Tomokiyo later verified the solution.

Anthropic reported that its internal Claude AI model traced the origins of five elliptic‑curve seeds generated by the U.S. National Security Agency. Claude performed the analysis in less than 30 minutes and concluded the seeds contain no exploitable weaknesses, contradicting long‑standing speculation about hidden backdoors. The AI’s internal logs even questioned why human cryptographers had missed the finding for 25 years.

## Key points

- GPT-6 Astra decoded a 1809 Napoleon-era military cipher in six hours, a task that could take weeks manually.
- Anthropic's Claude AI identified the origins of five NSA elliptic‑curve seeds in under 30 minutes and found no weaknesses.
- The findings were reported by Japan Today and Cyber Security News, with verification by patent engineer Satoshi Tomokiyo.

## Why it matters

Demonstrating AI's ability to solve historic ciphers and assess cryptographic primitives shows models can aid security analysis, potentially accelerating cryptanalysis and informing future encryption standards.

## Sources

1. ['What AI mostly brings is persistence': AIs from Anthropic and OpenAI are cracking ciphers and encryption protocols in record time](https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/claude/articles/ai-mostly-brings-persistence-ais-143501054.html) (tech.yahoo.com, 2026-10-19)

## Cite

Digest AI, "OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra cracks Napoleon cipher; Anthropic's Claude maps NSA elliptic seeds", 19 October 2026, https://digestai.news/story/openai-s-gpt-6-astra-cracks-napoleon-cipher-anthropic-s-claude-maps-ns

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