Panda Sensei

Panda Sensei (パンダ先生) is a tsumego solving AI developed in Japan.

Japanese Web Service

The AI is offered as a subscription service on the Pandanet (Japanese side of IGS) from 2003. It costs JPY 500/month (JPY 1,000/month together with other learning resources). This patented service is even used by professionals to check the soundness of their compositions.

Mobile app

You can download a mobile app for the service at IGS (English page). In-app purchases are needed to properly use the service.

Challenge Match

Panda Sensei Challenge Match was held as a side event of Pair Go World Cup. The AI and human players compete speed and accuracy in solving tsumego problems. Panda Sensei overwhelmed top professional pairs on two occasions, in 2016 and 2017. The following links include many photos and specially composed problems for the competition:

• 2016 event: Panda Sensei won.
• 2017 event: Panda Sensei won again.
• 2018 event: Panda Sensei retired from competition and only human pairs competed; Choi Jung & Park Junghwan pair won.

Limitations

Black to play and live  

Panda Sensei can handle only enclosed positions without outside complications. For example, the AI automatically adjusts the problem diagram as follows, adding stones:

After adjustment  

Red circled intersections show the "search area", where possible moves are considered by the AI. The search area can contain about 60 points at most. In this case the area is fairly small (20 points with 13 vacancies) and Panda Sensei shows two correct first moves almost instantly and responds to any attempt in the search area. (For solutions, see GokyoShumyoSection1Problem66/Solution)

White to play and make ko  

Another example. This is GokyoShumyoSection3Problem79 and is the correct first move.

Panda Sensei Adjustment  

Panda Sensei tries to ignore outside complications....

After human correction  

So you must add stones to make the cutting point inside of the area. And one stone is added in the right to reduce the number of points in the search area, which is now 34. Panda Sensei needs about one minute to solve the problem.
Other notes: Panda Sensei treats ten thousand year ko as seki life and eternal life as a kind of ko.