AI that cracked ancient secret code could help robot translation

Secret code or foreign language? For machines,


it might not matter. Without any prior knowledge, artificial intelligence algorithms have cracked two classic forms of encryption: the Caesar cipher and Vigenère cipher. As translating languages is similar to decoding a cipher, the approach may improve translation software.

To break the ciphers, Aidan Gomez and colleagues at the University of Toronto and Google used a type of algorithm called a generative adversarial network. The GAN started with no knowledge of ciphers or language, but by analysing thousands of English sentences and lines of coded text, it was able to start switching between the two. The texts were in no way related, for instance, it could have started with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in English and To Kill a Mockingbird in cipher text.

After analysing the texts, one part of the algorithm

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2159176-ai-that-cracked-ancient-secret-code-could-help-robot-translation/