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
light_feathers is a perception event	1111	06-jul-2018	96.3
salted_nuts is a fruit	1111	06-jul-2018	99.2
poker_stes is a cardgame	1111	06-jul-2018	91.7
senate_special_judiciary_committee is a political organization that is not part of the government	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
manchester_guardian is a website	1111	06-jul-2018	93.0
national_academy_of_sciences is headquartered in the country u_s_	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
thomas_hardy contributed to the creative work tess_of_the_durbervilles	1112	24-jul-2018	93.8
mike_jackson held the position of chief_executive	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
sydney_airport is a generalization of temple_of_the_reclining_buddha	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
daimler_ag makes the automobile m_class	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8