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
tour_d_armor is a sporting event	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
wash_walls is something found in or on buildings	1111	06-jul-2018	99.5
contemporary_dining_furniture is a kind of furniture	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
missouri_agribusiness_association is a professional organization	1111	06-jul-2018	90.3
hepatitis_a_virus_cellular_receptor_1 is a protein	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
kimn is a radio station in the city denver	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
television_broadcasting is an academic program at the university college	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
ken_griffey plays for the team reds	1116	12-sep-2018	98.4
alexanderplatz is a tourist attraction in the city berlin	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
dc is a city also known as texas	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8