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
oak_parquet_floors is something found in or on buildings	1111	06-jul-2018	98.8
server_hosting_provider is a sports team position	1111	06-jul-2018	99.4
rand_software is a tool	1111	06-jul-2018	99.4
chocolate_covered_raisins is a kind of candy	1111	06-jul-2018	96.0
buddhist_new_year is a monarch	1111	06-jul-2018	98.0
derek_lowe coaches the team atlanta_braves	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
salmon is a fish that can be served with the food dinner in a meal (or dish)	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
ix has spouse class	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
madinah is a city located in the country arabia_saudita	1116	12-sep-2018	99.9
end is an event at the location service	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8