OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra model successfully decoded an encrypted German army message transmitted 10 July 1941 that had remained unbroken for 85 years.

The decryption was performed by a Bloomberg Law product development coach with no cryptography experience.

An AI engineer used an OpenAI model to decode an 1809 military letter issued under Napoleon Bonaparte in 6 hours, a task that would have taken human historians and cryptographers weeks.

This appears to show commercial large language models operating effectively outside the use cases for which they were originally marketed.