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
n06_15_2009 is a dataset used within the scientific field of machine learning	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
blue_green_alliance is a political organization that is not part of the government	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
timber_table is an item found on the floor	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
antietam_national_battlefield_park is a monument	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
linda_gyllenberg is a fashion model	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
b__burgdorferi is a bacteria that causes lyme_disease	1115	03-sep-2018	93.8
michigan is a state that is bordered by the state north_dakota	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8
snails is an animal that preys on animals	1113	15-aug-2018	99.1
willie_brown is the leader of the city san_francisco	1116	12-sep-2018	99.8
wreg_tv is a TV station in the city memphis	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8