A mysterious letter written by Napoleon Bonaparte has been decoded for the first time in more than 200 years.
asserted
letter → write → years
The letter was sent to French general Auguste de Marmont by Napoleon's stepson, Eugene, the Viceroy of Italy, in 1809.
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letter → send → 1809
The first line is written in French, but the 24 lines that follow consist of two-digit numbers, stray letters, and invented symbols.
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that → write → numbers
While the letter would have originally come with a key, this has long been lost – meaning the contents have been a mystery.
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contents → come → key
Now, Carter Church, an engineer at cybersecurity company SentinelOne, has cracked the code using AI.
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Church → crack → AI
'I used GPT–6 Astra to break an unsolved cipher to one of Napoleon's generals that had gone unread for 217 years.
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that → use → years
What makes this impressive isn't actually the codebreaking, but that Astra completed the entire multi-modal workflow in six hours from a single image and goal,' he explained on X.
A mysterious letter written by Napoleon Bonaparte has been decoded for the first time after more than 200 years
On March 16, 1809, Napoleon wrote from Paris to his stepson, Eugene, asking him to send a letter to Auguste de Marmont – a friend of the Emperor, whose troops were positioned in Dalmatia, on the far side of the Adriatic.
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troops → make → Adriatic
With Austrian territory between them and every other French army, Marmont would have been isolated if war came.
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war → isolate → them
The first line is in French, and reads: 'Vous avez dû recevoir, Monsieur le Général Marmont, mes lettres des 8, 14 et 20 courant.'
This translates to: 'You must have received, General Marmont, my letters of the 8th, 14th, and 20th of this month.
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You → read → month
However, with the rest of the letter written in code, its meaning has been unclear.
uncertain
meaning → write → code
To crack it, Mr Church turned to GPT-6 Astra – an AI model created by OpenAI.
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Church → crack → OpenAI
Over six hours, the bot was able to decipher the message.
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bot → decipher → message
'Astra cut the 1,202 by 1,836 plate into rows, read the signs, decided which of 175 hand–drawn marks were the same sign written twice, and only then began breaking the cipher,' Mr Church explained in a blog post.
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Church → cut → post
The letter lays out the location of every other French and allied army, and urges Marmont to 'not be intimidated' by his isolated position.
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letter → lay → position
'The Russians are marching against Austria, and the army [of] Friuli today numbers eighty thousand men,' it reads.
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it → march → men
'Add the Dalmatian corps, without counting the reserves being organised everywhere in the rear, and you see that Austria will be attacked at once on every side.
'
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Austria → add → side
She is consequently hastening toward her ruin.
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She → hasten → ruin
'When you receive the order to march, you must not allow yourself to be intimidated by a few troops or a gathering of rabble.'
To crack it, Mr Church turned to GPT-6 Astra – an AI model created by OpenAI.
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Church → receive → OpenAI
Over six hours, the bot was able to decipher the message
On 16 March 1809, Napoleon (pictured in painting) wrote from Paris to his stepson, Eugene, asking him to send a letter to Auguste de Marmont – a friend of the Emperor, whose troops were positioned in Dalmatia, on the far side of the Adriatic
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troops → decipher → Adriatic
According to Mr Church, the cipher itself wasn't actually difficult to crack.
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cipher → accord → Church
However, he admits it would have taken humans much longer than the AI, which was able to whizz through it in just six hours.
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which → admit → hours
He added: 'The cipher itself isn't difficult, and cryptographers could have cracked this easily given the time/energy.
uncertain
cryptographers → add → energy
'But, the work to transcribe, catalog, translate, then crack is involved and multi-disciplinary.
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work → transcribe → ?
Every field has an unsolved backlog of niche problems that specialists don't have the bandwidth to tackle.
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specialists → have → bandwidth
'The takeaway here is that the people shortening those lists will increasingly be outsiders who were simply curious.'
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who → shorten → lists
The Aporia
