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
aluminum_clad_doors is something found in or on buildings	1111	06-jul-2018	98.2
a_separate_bowl is an item found in the kitchen	1111	06-jul-2018	99.0
the_folsom_telegraph is a political blog	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
ohio_northern_university_school_of_law is a university	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
homeland_security_chief is a kind of office held by a politician	1111	06-jul-2018	94.7
president_bill_clinton is a U.S. politician who holds the office of u_s__secretary	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
browns_stadium is a stadium or event venue also known as brown_stadium	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
adam_wainwright plays in the league nfl	1116	12-sep-2018	90.2
eggs is an agricultural product coming from beasts	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
juliette_binoche belongs to the ethnic group french	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0