Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the wartime missive written in code, creating a puzzle that went unsolved for more than 200 years -- until AI cracked it in a matter of hours. Tomokiyo said that since mid-September, most of the ciphers on his list have been cracked using AI. "There remain some tough problems" which could stay an enigma for years to come, because there is less relevant data available to help AI figure them out, the 58-year-old told AFP. "I'm excited long-time problems are now solved, but on the other hand, I have mixed feelings, because AI seems to have solved these difficult problems so easily," he said.

Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the wartime missive written in code, creating a puzzle that went unsolved for more than 200 years -- until AI cracked it in a matter of hours. Artificial intelligence is helping non-specialists unlock the secrets of historical sources, a trend described as a "turning point" in a field previously the preserve of scholars and dedicated hobbyists. One new sleuth is Carter Church, a 27-year-old AI engineer who decrypted a 19th-century letter to one of Napoleon's generals.

Without digital tools, the task could have taken weeks, but the latest model from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI broke the cipher in just six hours. "What AI mostly brings is persistence," Church told AFP, saying he felt "an unbelievable sense of satisfaction and excitement when I saw the result". The message from 1809 -- detailing French and allied troops' positions in two dozen lines of symbols, numbers and letters -- had lain ignored in an online academic archive.

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