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Claude Fable Solves a Historical Cipher
Bruce Schneier's blog highlights that the Claude Fable AI model solved a historical cipher, demonstrating LLM capabilities in cryptanalysis.
Bruce Schneier's blog post discusses the Claude Fable AI model successfully deciphering a historical cipher. The post frames the result as a notable example of LLMs applied to classical cryptanalysis. The published text provides limited technical detail beyond the headline.
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A Note on Sphere Packing Bounds for Tuple Lattice Sieving
Proves upper bounds on k-irreducible unit vector set rates, yielding nearly tight asymptotics relevant to tuple lattice sieving in cryptanalysis.
The paper bounds the maximal asymptotic rate of k-irreducible sets of unit vectors via spherical code packing bounds. It shows R_k is sandwiched between (1/2 - o(1)) log2(k)/k and (1 + o(1)) log2(k)/k for large k. These almost-tight bounds inform subexponential complexity analyses of tuple lattice sieving, which underpins security estimates for lattice-based cryptography.
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Claude Fable 5.1 Solves the Cyphral Distich, a 370-year-old cipher
Claude Fable 5.1 solved Sir Thomas Urquhart's 370-year-old Cyphral Distich cipher, recovering a hidden royalist prayer for Charles II.
Vals AI reports that Claude Fable 5.1 solved the Cyphral Distich, a 64-number cryptogram from Sir Thomas Urquhart's Logopandecteision unsolved since 1653, in 44 minutes using 176k tokens with no human hints. The key insight was that the cipher's key was the book itself: each number indexes a word in the corresponding Proquiritation, taking the first letter, yielding 'O GOD UPHOLD KING CHARLS THE SECOND AND MAKE HIM THE SUPREME RULER OF THIS LAND'. The model also deciphered the larger Cyphral Octastich (285 numbers) from The Jewel (1652) using page-based word indexing, recovering all but nine letters of a royalist prayer. The puzzle had been listed among Klaus Schmeh's Top 50 unsolved encrypted messages.
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AI Doesn't Mean the End of Mathematics—at Least Not Yet
Schneier and Rafi argue frontier AI models produce notable mathematical results but cannot yet build genuinely new conceptual frameworks.
Bruce Schneier and Kasra Rafi, writing in The Guardian, argue current AI models are not yet as capable as experienced academic mathematicians despite striking results. They cite OpenAI's disproof of the unit distance conjecture, Anthropic's published cryptanalysis results, and Claude's attempt at the Riemann hypothesis as achievements in counterexample search and recombining known techniques. They contend AI has not yet developed substantial new conceptual frameworks, though they expect that capability sooner rather than later.
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