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
white_bellied_cursorial_spiny_lizard is a reptile	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
biblical_recorder is a publication	1111	06-jul-2018	96.3
python_2_7 is a programming language	1111	06-jul-2018	95.3
raucous_meeting is a perception action	1111	06-jul-2018	96.4
phone_ringtone_samsung_verizon is an item found on a table	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
bugs is an invertebrate animal that feeds on seeds	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
beans is an agricultural product produced in __america	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
magic is a subpart of nba	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
damon is an athlete who injured his/her eyes	1115	03-sep-2018	99.9
the country southwest_africa uses the currency rand	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0