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
psp_portable_memory_stick_duo is a consumer electronic device	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
henry_brown is a Canadian person	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
awful_picture is form of visual art	1111	06-jul-2018	99.2
cerebellar_flocculus is a kind of brain tissue	1111	06-jul-2018	98.4
arteria_vermis_superior is an artery	1111	06-jul-2018	99.2
meal can cause blood_sugar	1113	15-aug-2018	98.6
ann_brashares contributed to the creative work the_sisterhood_of_the_traveling_pants	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
maritime_administration is headquartered in the country us	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
gotoh_museum is a museum in the city tokyo	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
heathrow_express_train is a transportation system located in the city central_london	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8