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
world_cup_rugby is an award, championship, or tournament trophy	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
craggy_peak is a mountain	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
oval_desk is a kind of furniture	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
bladder_stones is a disease	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
big_rain_storm is a weather phenomenon	1111	06-jul-2018	98.9
indinavir_sulfate is a drug worked on by merck	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
levi_johnston is a person who has age 18	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
alex001 is a musician who plays the piano	1115	03-sep-2018	99.8
predatory_mites is an arthropod that looks like insects	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
ski is a sport taught in the country china	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0