The Enigma machine vs ChatGPT (spoiler: it's not close)

Great news for codebreaks everywhere!

ChatGPT could crack the Enigma code in short order.

That’s according to Michael Wooldridge, a professor of computer science and AI expert at the University of Oxford.

In case history is not your bag, the Enigma code was a crazy-hard cipher system used by evil Nazis during World War II to protect military communications.

Boffins tried to smash it way before WWII, with big breakthroughs by Polish mathematicians Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki, and Henryk Zygalski of the Polish Cipher Bureau.

They reconstructed the Enigma machine and developed techniques to read encrypted messages.

In 1939, before the outbreak of the war, top Polish boffins shared their work with British and French intelligence.

At Bletchley Park, British cryptanalysts—notably Alan Turing and Dilly Knox—expanded on their work.

Turing designed the Bombe device, an electromechanical device that dramatically accelerated decryption. It looks like a wind-up doomsday machine!

These crypto boffins shortened the war by two to four years. Nice work, team!

But…

It took them years to accomplish what GPT can take care of today in short order.

Mainstream media loves writing about the imminent apocalypse that AI is about to unleash. Our imminent demise makes for great headlines.

I’m not sure about you, but I find these AI developments encouraging.

Running a lean online business can feel like a bit of Enigma code.

The other day I counted up the roles I’ve to slip into:

Chief Operating Officer, aka Chef Bottle Washer.
Chief Marketing Officer, because keeping up with the algos is tough.
Chief Technology Officer because my tech stack changes regularly.
Head of HR… I gave myself a verbal warning the other day for taking too much time off.

I could go on…

The good thing is that AI can solve some of these puzzles for me. What previously would have taken dozens of days or even weeks to figure out is now easy to solve with the right prompt or custom GPT.

I created custom GPTs for some of those roles in my business. One helps me with content strategy. Another with business planning. And another with creating offers.

If you need help solving an Enigma-sized problem in your business with AI, check out PromptWritingStudio.