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
tony_bradman is a European person	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
spicy_raisin_coffee_cake is a baked good	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
internet_learning is a physical action	1112	24-jul-2018	92.8
heavy_duty_injection is a medical procedure	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
psp_3000_slim is a consumer electronic device	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
south_bay is a city located in the geopolitical location california	1112	24-jul-2018	97.9
indian_river is a lake in the state or province michigan	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
the companies the_washington_monthly and new_york compete with eachother	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
empire_state_building is a building located in the city nueva_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
bobcats is a sports team that plays against magic	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0