Thread

1. jtrn · 1790087529 · focus · HN ↗

   The correct title: Researcher brakes one specific stubborn historic enigma message with good help from Astra.

   Stubborn for a long time because the message used a completely different key from the rest of that day's traffic. Everyone assumed it shared the daily key. The original transcription had errors. The left rotor turned over at letter 72, which is rare and breaks standard crib attacks.

   What is cool, if true, is that it was a 2 day collab between the Leffer and Astra. To me this shows the importance of human in the loop, was still all also showing how immensely power of llm tools. But I think it’s getting a bit silly how much anrticles ignores the driving force (the person) in breakthroughs like this.

   1. exfalso · 1790087762 · focus · HN ↗

      Come on, the trivializations start to sound quite unfounded now. Yes, a human was needed, but no, it wasn't a "collaboration"

      1. jtmarl1n · 1790088044 · focus · HN ↗

         So the LLM would have done all of this on its own? Why is it ok to acknowledge the human was needed but it’s not a collaboration? Is there a defined percentage of ownership required to make the word collaboration valid?

         1. Macuyiko · 1790088172 · focus · HN ↗

            From the article:

            "However, the most astonishing thing about this break is that the GPT–6 Astra did it entirely on its own. Carter Leffer only directed GPT–6 Astra to see if it could break any of the unbroken Enigma messages published on the Crypto Cellar Research web page."

            I mean... I'm all for collaboration but I think this case is pretty clear, no?

            1. alerighi · 1790088863 · focus · HN ↗

               I mean, the LLM could do it even without all the HUMAN knowledge that was stealed during training about the Enigma machine?

               We are fooling to me, there is no intelligence in these models, they just apply methods that were invented by humans without any consciousness on what they are doing.

               1. allturtles · 1790089150 · focus · HN ↗

                  You could say exactly the same about humans. Ex nihilo nihil fit. Every human depends on a vast corpus of prior human knowledge to be able to accomplish anything. This doesn't mean they have no intelligence.

                  1. huty · 1790089466 · focus · HN ↗

                     This is dumb.

                     At the margin the innovative human matters.

                     What that means for the rest of society is TBD.

                     1. TeMPOraL · 1790090415 · focus · HN ↗

                        At the margin innovation is just taking the obvious next step first.

                        1. huty2 · 1790092721 · focus · HN ↗

                           Says the person whose never produced a novel thought in his life!

                           1. redsocksfan45 · 1790093567 · focus · HN ↗

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