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
nasty_biting_flies is an invertebrate	1111	06-jul-2018	97.3
dallas_world_aquarium_and_zoological_garden is an aquarium	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
example_birmingham is a musical artist	1111	06-jul-2018	99.0
shenandoah_valley_regional_airport is a transportation system	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
n37_speed_x_cyclone_radio is an item often found in a bedroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
peking_duck_house_restaurant is a restaurant in the city los_angeles_ca	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
european_states is a generalization of denmark	1116	12-sep-2018	98.4
ricky_jean_francois is an athlete who injured his/her hand	1115	03-sep-2018	96.9
laban is the father of pharaoh	1116	12-sep-2018	98.2
creatures is an animal that preys on reptiles	1112	24-jul-2018	93.8