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
giant_pacific_octopus is a mollusk	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
the_facts is a website	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9
mirror_clocks is an item found on a wall	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
sichuan_salamander is an amphibian	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
loras_college is a university	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
smell is a subpart of the body within system	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9
archie_manning is the father of eli_manning	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
xml_feed_tweet_seattle_mariners is a sports team that played in series	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
derrick_turnbow is an athlete who wins nextel_cup	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
tokyo is a city that lies on the river grand	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0