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
australian_online_magazine is a magazine	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
n12891 is a ZIP code	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
building_owners_management_association is a non-profit organization	1111	06-jul-2018	92.0
dry_dish_towel is an item often found in a bathroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
highland_darter is a fish	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
mice refers to more than one mouse	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
decordova is a museum in the city lincoln	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
credit_suisse is a company that has an office in the country switzerland_switzerland	1114	25-aug-2018	93.8
dragonflies is an arthropod that looks like damselflies	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
hollywood_bowl is a stadium or event venue located in the city los_angeles_ca	1116	12-sep-2018	99.9