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
islamic_fundamentalist_groups is a terrorist organization	1111	06-jul-2018	99.5
mercury_montego_engines is a kind of automobile engine	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
melaleuca_leaf_weevil is an insect	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
ripe_tomato is a food	1111	06-jul-2018	97.6
hair_beautifier_oil is a personal care product	1111	06-jul-2018	99.4
seattle_seahawks_21_10 is an organization also known as steelers	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8
father is the parent of lord_jesus	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
bullhead_city is a subpart of arizona	1111	06-jul-2018	98.4
ankang is a city located in the geopolitical location china	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
raymond_james is the home venue for the sports team bay	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0