OpenAI's ChatGPT-6 Astra autonomously solved a 1941 Enigma-coded message that had sat unsolved online since 2005, completing the task in two days. Before attempting the cryptanalysis, the model independently wrote Python and C++ code to build an Enigma simulator and a Bombe cracker — with no human guidance on how to proceed. The achievement is a concrete demonstration of frontier AI designing its own tools and applying them to open-ended, multi-step problems entirely autonomously. Enigma code-breaking is foundational to British computing history through Bletchley Park and Alan Turing; an AI surpassing prior efforts at the same problem carries strong resonance for UK readers.
