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
n1_5_1 is a dataset used within the scientific field of machine learning	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
inferior_petrosal_or_the_transverse_sinus is a vein	1111	06-jul-2018	95.5
dent_mountain is a mountain	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
cannes_film_festival_2011 is a film festival	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
night_s_elections is an election	1111	06-jul-2018	95.2
football_players is a generalization of favre	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
samuel_taylor_coleridge contributed to the creative work the_rime_of_the_ancient_mariner	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
china is a synonym for republic	1111	06-jul-2018	98.4
harvard is a city also known as dc	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8
china is a country located in the geopolitical location consuming_countries	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9