The algorithm needs lots of words plainpicture/Mira/Frank Chmura

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 …