digesta
Just signalNo noise

← Back to feed

AI cracks Napoleon's 200-year-old secret code in just six hours

–

Neutral summary

A coded military letter written on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte in the 19th century has been deciphered with the help of artificial intelligence in just six hours, according to French and Brazilian media reports. The message's content had remained undeciphered for more than 200 years. The technology is also being used to recover texts from papyri carbonized during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and to analyze millions of pages of manuscripts recording European history, including the medieval archives of Notre-Dame de Paris. Nature reports that cryptographers are receiving a flood of requests from amateurs using AI to validate cipher solutions. As Sud Ouest notes, AI is "transforming the conditions of research," allowing specialists to decipher documents previously considered inaccessible and identify connections between records scattered across archives in different countries. Examples cited include Napoleon's letters, the Herculaneum papyri, and millions of Hebrew manuscripts. O Globo's report mentions 27-year-old AI engineer Carter Church as involved in such work.

How it was framed

Outlets: 9. Countries: 4. Facts in the shared core: 5.

Publication timeline

  1. · Nature (outlet profile)

    History’s long-secret codes are being cracked by amateurs using AI. Nature, Published online: 16 October 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03338-y Cryptographers’ inboxes are being flooded with requests to validate cipher so…

  2. · BFMTV (outlet profile)

    "Ça transforme les conditions de la recherche": d’une lettre codée de Napoléon aux papyrus carbonisés par le Vésuve, comment l’intelligence artificielle fait parler les archives oubliées. L'intelligence artificielle per…

  3. · Sciences et Avenir (outlet profile)

    Quand l'IA déchiffre Napoléon et les registres de Notre-Dame de Paris. En seulement six heures, une intelligence artificielle vient de décoder une missive napoléonienne cryptée qui résistait à l'analyse depuis plus de d…

  4. · Sud Ouest (outlet profile)

    Elle décrypte un code énigmatique de Napoléon, fait parler des papyrus antiques : comment l’IA bouscule la recherche historique. L’intelligence artificielle transforme les conditions de la recherche historique en dévoil…

  5. · O Globo (outlet profile)

    IA ajuda historiadores a decifrar mensagens da época de Napoleão e ler papiros carbonizados. Uma carta militar codificada por ordem de Napoleão Bonaparte no século XIX, cujo conteúdo permaneceu indecifrável por mais de…

  6. · UOL (outlet profile)

    IA ajuda historiadores a decifrar mensagens napoleônicas e papiros carbonizados. Como a IA conseguiu decifrar, em questão de horas, um enigma que permaneceu sem solução por mais de 200 anos? Uma mensagem codificada da é…

  7. · franceinfo (outlet profile)

    Grâce à l'IA, une lettre militaire de Napoléon rédigée en code a été déchiffrée, comme de nombreux autres documents cryptés. Pour décrypter des correspondances ou faire parler des papyrus antiques carbonisés, l'intellig…

  8. · Malay Mail (outlet profile)

    AI cracks Napoleon’s 200-year-old secret code in just six hours. TOKYO, Oct 16 — Napoleon Bonaparte ordered a wartime message written in code, creating a puzzle that remained unso...

  9. · Folha de S.Paulo (outlet profile)

    IA ajuda a decifrar carta de Napoleão Bonaparte e papiros carbonizados. A inteligência artificial se tornou uma ferramenta para decifrar, em questão de horas, textos codificados ou analisar antigos papiros carbonizados.…

  10. · UOL (outlet profile)

    IA ajuda a decifrar carta de Napoleão Bonaparte e papiros carbonizados

Factual core

  • A coded letter by Napoleon has been deciphered using artificial intelligence.
  • AI is also being used to analyze carbonized ancient papyri.
  • The use of AI opens new avenues for historical research.
  • The coded message had remained unsolved for over 200 years.
  • AI has enabled the recovery of texts from carbonized papyri from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Full methodology →

Other stories of the day