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
large_slit_faced_bat is a mammal	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
open_doors is an item often found in a hallway	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
windows___doors___skylights is something found in or on buildings	1111	06-jul-2018	98.8
disques_ozmoz_records is a record label	1111	06-jul-2018	97.6
n8_8 is a performance metric used by machine-learning scientists	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
spiders is a type of arthropods	1111	06-jul-2018	99.1
marlins is a sports team that won the nl_east	1114	25-aug-2018	93.8
france_telecom has acquired orange	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
john_stossel is a person who belongs to the organization abc_news	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
paul_simonon is a musician who is part of clash	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0