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
white_eared_cotton_rat is a vertebrate	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
n1_18_sacker_sport_radio is an item often found in a bedroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
russell_pond is a trail	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
n2005_american_league_divisional_series is a sports game	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
port_of_yantian is a transportation port	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
national is a bank that bought idbi_bank	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
baseball is a sport played in the venue metrodome	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
ask_jeeves has acquired bloglines	1114	25-aug-2018	98.4
justine_henin_hardenne is an athlete who beat serena_williams	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
christian is a person who graduated from the university state_university	1112	24-jul-2018	99.2