Read the Web
Research Project at Carnegie Mellon University

NELL: Never-Ending Language Learning

Browse the Knowledge Base!

Can computers learn to read? We think so. "Read the Web" is a research project that attempts to create a computer system that learns over time to read the web. Since January 2010, our computer system called NELL (Never-Ending Language Learner) has been running continuously, attempting to perform two tasks each day:

• First, it attempts to "read," or extract facts from text found in hundreds of millions of web pages (e.g., playsInstrument(George_Harrison, guitar)).
• Second, it attempts to improve its reading competence, so that tomorrow it can extract more facts from the web, more accurately.

So far, NELL has accumulated over 50 million candidate beliefs by reading the web, and it is considering these at different levels of confidence. NELL has high confidence in 2,810,379 of these beliefs — these are displayed on this website. It is not perfect, but NELL is learning. You can track NELL's progress below or @cmunell on Twitter, browse and download its knowledge base, read more about our technical approach, or join the discussion group.

Recently-Learned Facts

instance	iteration	date learned	confidence
excelmicrosoft_excel is software	1113	15-aug-2018	96.1
redhumped_caterpillar is an invertebrate	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
tibetan_furniture is an item found on the floor	1111	06-jul-2018	99.4
beans_sprouts is a fruit	1111	06-jul-2018	98.8
feeder_vessels is an artery	1111	06-jul-2018	99.4
super_bowl_xliv_the_indianapolis_colts is headquartered in the state or province new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
spanish_language is a language taught in language schools in the city san_miguel	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
tarantulas is an animal that is a kind of spiders	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
burlington_international is an attraction that will be fall in city burlington	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
state_university is a synonym for doctor	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6