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
poker_gambling_problems is a non-sports, non-electronic game	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
warming_factor is a physical action	1112	24-jul-2018	92.2
norrish_creek is a river	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
potter_wasp is an invertebrate	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
yalden_s_desmomys is a mammal	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
thomas_watson is a top member of ibm	1116	12-sep-2018	99.9
blake_fielder_civil has wife amy_winehouse	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
evan_solomon was born in the state or province california	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
austin_zoo is a zoo in the city austin	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
predatory_mites is an arthropod that looks like insects	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0