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
adequate_sunlight is a perception event	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
psp_extended_battery_pack is a consumer electronic device	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
original_chicken is a type of meat	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
unique_clock is an item often found in a bedroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
physiology_students is a victim	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
short_skirts is a clothing item to go with shirts	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
journal is a newspaper in the city new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
kosuke_fukudome plays the sport baseball	1116	12-sep-2018	98.4
nicoderm_cq_patch is expected to come to market on august	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
sony competes with the company responsible for launch_of_xbox360	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0