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
dearborn_hotels is a park	1111	06-jul-2018	90.4
adult_visual_cortex is a kind of brain tissue	1111	06-jul-2018	98.9
n6_8_percentage_points is a machine-learning algorithm	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
zinc_problems is a physiological condition	1111	06-jul-2018	93.1
white_claw_hermit_crab is a crustacean	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
ed_colligan is the CEO of palm_inc	1116	12-sep-2018	99.7
evan_williams is a top member of facebook	1116	12-sep-2018	99.2
neck_tie is a clothing item to go with boots	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
brown_recluse_spiders is called spiders	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9
states is a state or province located in the geopolitical location central001	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0