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 2,168,758 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
showers is something found in or on buildings	827	02-apr-2014	98.5
gary_s__goodman is a journalist	827	02-apr-2014	92.8
raptor_birds is a bird	829	10-apr-2014	100.0
_____________branches_of_transverse_cervical_nerve is a nerve	827	02-apr-2014	94.4
bone_hardening is a bone	829	10-apr-2014	92.7
pepper is an agricultural product that is usually cooked with almonds	830	14-apr-2014	100.0
tea is an agricultural product produced in member_countries	832	20-apr-2014	97.3
ucla hired karl_dorrell	827	02-apr-2014	100.0
deep_creek_lake is a lake in the state or province maryland	832	20-apr-2014	100.0
issac is the father of jacob	832	20-apr-2014	93.8