Re: computer-go: Authenticating the identity of a remote go-playing computer program

[Heikki Levanto <heikki@xxxxxx>]

I tend to agree with the opinions already expressed here, that there is no
cryptographical way to make sure the participants are actually programs. I
think the most obvious solution is the one quoted in the original question:
Make sure that
  > the stakes are not high enough to motivate anyone to cheat. 

Requiring the participating programs to be submittend to the organizers will
help a lot, but as long as we allow any randomness in the play, we can not
demand that the programs will later reproduce every one of the moves. Thus
there is still room for a human supervisor to sneak some advice to the
program (through a file, socket, or what ever), perhaps to propose one or
two good moves - or even better, veto a few really big blunders.

Of course these considerations apply to "physical" tournaments as well. It
may help to require impartial operators for all programs, but that opens up
a new can of worms, especially with tricky interfaces and responsibility for
errors.

Of course, if programs want, they can show "good faith" by explaining how
they reached a certain conclusion, and by a controlled use of randomness.
Both features sound very useful for anyone developing programs, so requiring
them should not be that much of an extra hazzle. But then again, we never
require such display from human players, who also could be cheating by
having a professional walk by and shake his head...


- Heikki


-- 
Heikki Levanto     LSD Levanto Software Development   heikki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
               "In Murphy we Turst"