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
system_consequences is a video game system	1111	06-jul-2018	97.2
beretta_pistols is a weapon	1111	06-jul-2018	97.7
west_marche_arkansas is a beach	1111	06-jul-2018	90.7
n1991_world_series is an award, championship, or tournament trophy	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
rice_bowl is an item found in the kitchen	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
jonathan_ornstein is a top member of mesa	1116	12-sep-2018	99.2
bay is a sports team that plays the sport football	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
pierce_brosnan starred in the movie thomas_crown_affair	1115	03-sep-2018	99.7
toni_morrison held the position of novelist	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
ashdod is a city also known as jerusalem	1112	24-jul-2018	93.8