You’re reading an excerpt of Making Things Think: How AI and Deep Learning Power the Products We Use, by Giuliano Giacaglia. Purchase the book to support the author and the ad-free Holloway reading experience. You get instant digital access, plus future updates.

During the Second World War, the British and the Allies had the help of thousands of codebreakers located at Bletchley Park in the UK. In 1939, one of these sleuths, Alan Turing, a young mathematician and computer scientist, was responsible for the design of the electromechanical machine named the Bombe. The British used this device to break the German Enigma Cipher.* At the same location in 1943, Tommy Flowers, with contributions from Turing, designed the Colossus, a set of computers built with vacuum tubes, to help the Allies crack the Lorenz Cipher.* These two devices helped break the German codes and predict Germany’s strategy. According to US General Eisenhower, cracking the enemy codes was decisive for the Allies winning the war.

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