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
genioglossus_or_geniohyoglossus_muscle is a muscle	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
black_stainless_steel is a building material	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
basic_details is a scientific term	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
narrow_footed_worm_salamander is an amphibian	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
james_sims coaches a sports team	1111	06-jul-2018	91.8
states is a state or province located in the geopolitical location congo	1114	25-aug-2018	99.8
vernon_bellecourt died in the city minneapolis	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
public is an organization dissolved at the date april	1113	15-aug-2018	96.9
black_pepper is an agricultural product that is usually cooked with mustard	1114	25-aug-2018	99.9
the sport baseball was played at n1951_world_series	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0