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
metal_mold is a fungus	1112	24-jul-2018	93.4
eco_friendly_pens is an office supply	1111	06-jul-2018	90.6
chuches_shoes is a kind of clothing	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
wcbb is a TV station	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
chianti_classico_cacchiano is a wine	1111	06-jul-2018	98.5
microsoft was responsible for microsoft_to_offer_xbox_one_without_kinect	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
wnet is a TV station in the city new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
new_orleans is a city located in the country usa	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
dell_inc is a company in the economic sector of computer	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
mary is the mother of jesus_jesus	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8