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
amanda_griffin is a writer	1111	06-jul-2018	91.2
line_arbitration is a visualizable attribute	1111	06-jul-2018	90.3
suitable_wavelength is a perception event	1111	06-jul-2018	97.2
george_w__smith is a U.S. politician	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
traditional_rectangular_shape is a geometric shape	1111	06-jul-2018	96.2
sindh is a sate or province located in the country india	1116	12-sep-2018	98.4
robert_de_niro is an actor that worked with the director brian_de_palma	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
mount_logan is related to north_america	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
the sports leage nascar uses the venue bristol_motor_speedway	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
rifles is a type of weapon produced in china	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0