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
mary_steenbergen ia a celebrity	1111	06-jul-2018	90.6
aid_web_sites is a machine-learning conference	1111	06-jul-2018	97.4
araneus_anuncinatus_ochrorufus is an arachnid	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
ceramic_toilet is an item often found in a bathroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
standardized_instruments is a musical instrument	1111	06-jul-2018	95.3
the home stadium of jeremy_roenick is wrigley_field	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
mick_jagger is a musician who is part of rolling_stones	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
weill was born in the city nueva_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
scuba is a sport taught in the country india	1115	03-sep-2018	98.4
riverdale_zoo is a zoo in the city toronto	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0