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

[Don Dailey <drd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

That's a very interesting idea.  It certainly  seems possible that you
might be able to  DISCOURAGE cheating, but  I'm not sure it's possible
to guarantee it cryptographically (but maybe it is!)

One thing that comes to mind is some kind of verification system.  The
problem  might be reduced  to proving that  a given program executable
can produce the observed output.  This can be done if a lot of care is
taken.  I could  go  into  a lot of  detail,   but I'll  put  it in  a
nutshell.  Your program  would have to completely deterministic,  with
respect to any given input.  This might be easy  for some programs and
very difficult for others.  There are some very tricky consequences to
this  I won't elaborate on, but  suffice it to  say that this could be
quite a job (depending a lot on how your program is constructed.)

Other   than  something   like this,  I'm   not   sure how you   could
cryptographically   "sign"  a   move  for   authentication.   It's  an
interesting problem  but  I can't see  anyone  doing anything about it
soon, although it sounds like a very good thing!

Don


   From: "Bob Myers" <rtm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
   Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 12:19:10 -0800
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   Is it possible to authenticate the identity of a remote computer program
   playing a game of go?

   In Guiyang last month, I was talking with a go programmer, discussing the
   possibility of having computer go tournaments on the net instead of in one
   physical location.  I know that there are already tournaments being held on
   the net, but the stakes are not high enough to motivate anyone to cheat.  If
   a large amount of prize money were at stake, on the other hand,
   unfortunately there might be people who would try to cheat (for instance, by
   having a 7-dan human pretend to be the computer).  Thus, we need a way to
   reliably authenticate the identity of a remote computer program playing a
   game of go.

   I know just enough about public-key encryption techniques and digital
   signatures to believe that this is possible.  I hope that experts on this
   list can shed some light on how it might work.  It would be ideal if a
   standard could be established that eventually all go programs might adhere
   to and thus allow more tournaments to be held on the net.

   Bob Myers
   IntelligentGo Foundation
   www.intelligentgo.org