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
spicy_lamb_sausage is a type of meat	1111	06-jul-2018	98.7
southbay_shopping_center is a shopping mall	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
n12096 is a ZIP code	1112	24-jul-2018	99.8
port_lincoln_airport is a transportation system	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
simone_cat_clock is an item found on a wall	1111	06-jul-2018	99.5
the sports leage craftsman_truck_series uses the venue bristol_motor_speedway	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
operation_barbarossa happened on the date june_1941	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
alkmaar is a city located in the country netherlands	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
brett_favre coaches the team new_york_jets	1116	12-sep-2018	98.4
snowboarding is a sport taught in the country __america	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0