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
cooking_pictures is form of visual art	1111	06-jul-2018	98.3
harvey_walbanger_cake is a baked good	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
thrillville__off_the_rails is a video game	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
full_double_bed is a kind of furniture	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
psp_3000_slim is a consumer electronic device	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
mr_ is a person who belongs to the organization microsoft_corporation001	1111	06-jul-2018	99.2
rob_thomas is a musician who is part of matchbox_20	1115	03-sep-2018	93.8
frank_watson is a U.S. politician who is a member of the political group senate	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
twins is a sports team that plays the sport baseball	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
charlesbank_park is a park in the city boston	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0