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
bathtub_accessories is an item often found in a bathroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
school_portraits is form of visual art	1111	06-jul-2018	99.0
valeri_polyokov is an astronaut	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
interface_sequence_returns is a machine-learning conference	1112	24-jul-2018	95.3
corporate_america_family_credit_union is a bank	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
serug is the father of nahor	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
xml_feed_tweet_seattle_mariners is a sports team that played in series	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
jolie has husband brad_pitt	1116	12-sep-2018	99.9
lincoln makes the automobile town_car	1114	25-aug-2018	93.8
intron_a is a drug worked on by merck	1114	25-aug-2018	96.9