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
nostalgia_bug is an invertebrate	1111	06-jul-2018	94.5
bisphenol_a_formaldehyde_epichlorohydrin_resin is a chemical	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
mercury_montego_engines is a kind of automobile engine	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
wyoming_rhode_island is a beach	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
u_s__congress is a part of the government	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
williams and dee_brown are teammates	1112	24-jul-2018	93.8
arnold_schwarzenegger is a U.S. politician who holds the office of governor	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
eddie_mathews plays the sport baseball	1116	12-sep-2018	93.7
bed is often found in one_bed_room	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
kbci is a TV affiliate of the network cbs_evening_news	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0