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
tubarao is an ethnic group	1111	06-jul-2018	90.6
warming_factor is a physical action	1112	24-jul-2018	92.2
complete_aluminum is a building material	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
cpg_avenue is a highway	1111	06-jul-2018	95.3
amidon_north_dakota is an island	1111	06-jul-2018	95.6
spiders is a synonym for ants	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
rays is a type of pelagics	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
international_steel_group is headquartered in the state or province ohio	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
wfxl_tv is a TV affiliate of the network fox	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
peachtree_industrial_boulevard is a street in the city norcross	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0