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
paddle_flap_scorpionfish is a fish	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
simple_wooden_door is an item often found in a hallway	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
acceleration_couch is a household item	1111	06-jul-2018	90.9
n12096 is a ZIP code	1112	24-jul-2018	99.8
bunker_cave is a cave	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
robert and samuel are siblings	1112	24-jul-2018	93.8
island_gardens is a park in the city central_london	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
spiders is an animal that is a kind of pets	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
seattle_seahawks_21_10 is an organization also known as steelers	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8
lotus is a specific automobile maker dealer in usa	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0