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
english_strawberry_trifle_cake is a baked good	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
edit_section__lisp is a programming language	1111	06-jul-2018	92.5
the_first_church_of_the_spirit_and_truth is a religion	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
southern_clark_s_spiny_lizard is a reptile	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
dime_box_restaurant is a restaurant	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
beds is often found in big_rooms	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
sony is related to ps4	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
beloved_ohio_state_buckeyes is a sports team that plays the sport golf	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
spiders is called beetles	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
edgar_rice_burroughs was born in chicago_south	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0