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
corner_room is a kind of room	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
severe_disciplinary_action is a cognitive action	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
howard_university is a school	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
structure_of_vagus_nerve_visceral_branch is a nerve	1111	06-jul-2018	97.8
i_home_clock is an item found on a wall	1111	06-jul-2018	99.4
troop_surge happened on the date n2007	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
beds is often found in style_room	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
camden_yards is the home venue for the sports team baltimore_orioles	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
sao_paulo is the location of the event brazilians_protest_world_cup_spending__call_for_better_services	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
westminster_abbey is a place of worship that practices the religion of christianity	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0