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
white_eared_pocket_mouse is a vertebrate	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
english_resistance is a socio-political term	1111	06-jul-2018	92.3
jack_adams_award is a film festival	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
unattached_cells is a type of biological cell	1111	06-jul-2018	96.7
movado_desk_clock is an item often found in a bedroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
taormina is a city located in the country italy	1115	03-sep-2018	98.4
national is a bank in palestine	1114	25-aug-2018	98.4
robert_smith is a musician who is part of the_cure	1115	03-sep-2018	98.4
the sports leage nba uses the venue td_banknorth_garden	1112	24-jul-2018	93.8
the country european_countries uses the currency dollars	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0