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
matrix_vector_multiplication is a scientific term	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
snake_meadow_pond is a lake	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
camellia_sinensis is a fungus	1111	06-jul-2018	90.8
_199_00 is an award, championship, or tournament trophy	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
communications_consultant is a kind of office held by a politician	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
nightgown is a clothing item to go with robe	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
lamech is the parent of noah	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
harrison is a musician who plays the guitar	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
bryan_singer directed the movie superman_returns	1115	03-sep-2018	96.9
center_for_jewish_history is a museum in the city new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	99.9