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
two_shoulder_straps is an invertebrate	1111	06-jul-2018	95.0
spousal_murder ia a crime or charge	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
saturday_morning_meetings is a TV show	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
wave_tactics is a weapon	1111	06-jul-2018	97.1
tyne_hotels is a park	1111	06-jul-2018	90.5
modern_art is a museum in the city new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
feline_friends is an animal that preys on cat	1113	15-aug-2018	98.4
klamath_mountains is a mountain in the state or province oregon	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
onion is an agricultural product that is usually cooked with lemon	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
red_maples is a plant that is a kind of trees	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0