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
ad_spending is a physical action	1111	06-jul-2018	95.5
crasher_engineering is an area of study within the field of machine learning	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
xiphydriidae is a mollusk	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
j_and_j_s_outdoor_style_hickory_barbecue_sauce is a condiment	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
the_simple_art_of_murder is a book	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
china is a country located in the geopolitical location population_countries	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
qwest is a stadium or event venue located in the city seattle	1116	12-sep-2018	99.9
the country syria uses the currency pound	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
tom_barrett is the leader of the city downtown_milwaukee	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
dale_earnhardt_jr is an athlete coached by stewart	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0