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
wide_wooden_doors is an item often found in a hallway	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
maine_savings_federal_credit_union is a bank	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
halloween_critical_thinking is a cognitive action	1112	24-jul-2018	99.9
contact_dell is a book	1111	06-jul-2018	90.5
formalization_software is a tool	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
kqed_tv is a company that has an office in the city san_francisco	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
golf is a sport taught in the country china	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
dodge is a specific automobile maker dealer in mexico	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
spiders is a type of pests	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
bed is often found in standard	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0