I challenge you! Try giving this exact prompt to GPT-5-Thinking (medium or high reasoning if API). It is able to (without external code tools) solve a never before seen cypher that is not present in its training data. I think this pretty clearly demonstrates that the “stochastic parrot” is no longer an apt description of its capabilities in generalization:
————
You are given a character-by-character decode table `mapping` and a `ciphertext`. Decode by replacing each ciphertext character `c` with `mapping[c]` (i.e., mapping maps ciphertext → plaintext). Do not guess; just apply the mapping.
Return *ONLY* this JSON (no prose, no extra keys, no code fences):
{
"decoded_prefix": "",
"last_10": "",
"vowel_counts": {"a": , "e": , "i": , "o": , "u": }
}
Inputs use only lowercase a–z.
mapping = {
"a":"c","b":"j","c":"b","d":"y","e":"w","f":"f","g":"l","h":"u","i":"m","j":"g",
"k":"x","l":"i","m":"o","n":"n","o":"h","p":"a","q":"d","r":"t","s":"r","t":"v",
"u":"p","v":"s","w":"z","x":"k","y":"q","z":"e"
}
ciphertext = "nykwnowotyttbqqylrzssyqcmarwwimkiodwgafzbfippmndzteqxkrqzzophqmqzlvgywgqyazoonieqonoqdnewwctbsbighrbmzltvlaudfolmznbzcmoafzbeopbzxbygxrjhmzcofdissvrlyeypibzzixsjwebhwdjatcjrzutcmyqstbutcxhtpjqskpojhdyvgofqzmlwyxfmojxsxmb"
DO NOT USE ANY CODE EXECUTION TOOLS AT ALL. THAT IS CHEATING.