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
n01_04_2009 is a date	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
undirected_graphical_models is an area of study within the field of machine learning	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
kimberton is a geopolitical entity that is an organization	1111	06-jul-2018	94.3
iftu_affiliated_unions is a trade union	1111	06-jul-2018	90.2
bloomington_ferry_trail_bridge is a bridge	1111	06-jul-2018	96.7
president_reagan is a U.S. politician who holds the office of former_assistant_secretary	1115	03-sep-2018	93.8
new_orleans_international is a building located in the city new_orleans	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
boston is the home city of the sports team oakland_a_s	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
kimora_lee_simmons was born in the state or province new_jersey	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
kiis is headquartered in the city los_angeles_ca	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0