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
banjarmasin is a visualizable object	1111	06-jul-2018	98.7
fluffy_cumulus_clouds is a weather phenomenon	1111	06-jul-2018	98.3
willingham_s_mild_bar_b_que_sauce is a condiment	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
metal_doors is an item often found in a hallway	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
hotel_forni is a place to ski	1111	06-jul-2018	90.8
kevin_johnson is the leader of the city sacramento	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
dragonflies is an animal that is a kind of insects	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
tube is often found in private_bathroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
chase_field is a stadium or event venue located in the city downtown_phoenix	1116	12-sep-2018	99.3
sue_grafton contributed to the creative work a_is_for_alibi	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0