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
brightbelly_sculpin is a fish	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
sintra is a visualizable scene	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
video_to_sony_psp_converter is a consumer electronic device	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
family_photographer is a job position	1111	06-jul-2018	95.0
ceramic_toilet is an item often found in a bathroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
douglas_r__conant is the CEO of campbell_soup	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
carlos_santana is a musician who plays the guitar	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
kirby_puckett plays for the team twins	1116	12-sep-2018	99.6
dodge is a specific automobile maker dealer in virginia	1115	03-sep-2018	99.8
providence is a hospital in the city anchorage	1116	12-sep-2018	93.9