Related papers: A simple solution to Ulam's liar game with one lie
We investigate the following version of the well-known R\'enyi-Ulam game. Two players - the Questioner and the Responder - play against each other. The Responder thinks of a number from the set $\{1,\ldots,n\}$, and the Questioner has to…
We study the problem of identifying an initially unknown $m$-bit number by using yes-no questions when up to a fixed number $e$ of the answers can be erroneous. In the variant we consider here questions are restricted to be the union of up…
Consider a bin containing $n$ balls colored with two colors. In a $k$-query, $k$ balls are selected by a questioner and the oracle's reply is related (depending on the computation model being considered) to the distribution of colors of the…
`Twenty questions' is a guessing game played by two players: Bob thinks of an integer between $1$ and $n$, and Alice's goal is to recover it using a minimal number of Yes/No questions. Shannon's entropy has a natural interpretation in this…
We propose the use of a quantum algorithm to deal with the problem of searching with errors in the framework of two-person games. Specifically, we present a solution to the Ulam's problem that polynomially reduces its query complexity and…
We consider an extension of the 2-person R\'enyi-Ulam liar game in which lies are governed by a channel $C$, a set of allowable lie strings of maximum length $k$. Carole selects $x\in[n]$, and Paul makes $t$-ary queries to uniquely…
In a parallel with the 20 questions game, we present a method to determine whether two large language models (LLMs), placed in a black-box context, are the same or not. The goal is to use a small set of (benign) binary questions, typically…
The Renyi-Ulam game is played between two players, the Seeker and the Obscurer. The Obscurer thinks of a number between 1 and $n$. The Seeker wishes to identify that number. On each turn, the Seeker asks the Obscurer whether her number…
The $q$-round Renyi-Ulam pathological liar game with $k$ lies on the set $[n]:=\{1,...,n\}$ is a 2-player perfect information zero sum game. In each round Paul chooses a subset $A\subseteq [n]$ and Carole either assigns 1 lie to each…
Discuss several tricks for solving twenty question problems which in this paper is depicted as a guessing game. Player tries to find a ball in twenty boxes by asking as few questions as possible, and these questions are answered by only…
People often ask questions with false assumptions, a type of question that does not have regular answers. Answering such questions requires first identifying the false assumptions. Large Language Models (LLMs) often generate misleading…
The $k$-majority game is played with $n$ numbered balls, each coloured with one of two colours. It is given that there are at least $k$ balls of the majority colour, where $k$ is a fixed integer greater than $n/2$. On each turn the player…
In the distributional Twenty Questions game, Bob chooses a number $x$ from $1$ to $n$ according to a distribution $\mu$, and Alice (who knows $\mu$) attempts to identify $x$ using Yes/No questions, which Bob answers truthfully. Her goal is…
A neat 1972 result of Pohl asserts that [3n/2]-2 comparisons are sufficient, and also necessary in the worst case, for finding both the minimum and the maximum of an n-element totally ordered set. The set is accessed via an oracle for…
There are n people, each of whom is either a knight or a spy. It is known that at least k knights are present, where n/2 < k < n. Knights always tell the truth. We consider both spies who always lie and spies who answer as they see fit.…
The Ulam sequence, described by Stanislaw Ulam in the 1960s, starts $1,2$ and then iteratively adds the smallest integer that can be uniquely written as the sum of two distinct earlier terms: this gives $1,2,3,4,6,8,11,\dots$. Already in…
The Ulam sequence is given by $a_1 =1, a_2 = 2$, and then, for $n \geq 3$, the element $a_n$ is defined as the smallest integer that can be written as the sum of two distinct earlier elements in a unique way. This gives the sequence $1, 2,…
Huffman coding is often presented as the optimal solution to Twenty Questions. However, a caveat is that Twenty Questions games always end with a reply of "Yes," whereas Huffman codewords need not obey this constraint. We bring resolution…
We further explore the notion of Ulam words considered by Bade, Cui, Labelle, and Li, giving some lower bounds on how many there are of a given length. Gaps between words and words of special type also reveal remarkable structure. By…
Users often ask dialogue systems ambiguous questions that require clarification. We show that current language models rarely ask users to clarify ambiguous questions and instead provide incorrect answers. To address this, we introduce CLAM:…