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
thrombin is a protein	1111	06-jul-2018	95.6
funchal_airport is a transportation system	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
loud_clock is an item often found in a bedroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
many_weeks is a sports game	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
milk_stout is a beverage	1111	06-jul-2018	93.5
bobby_gilbert was born in the state or province pennsylvania	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
people is a company that has an office in the country china	1111	06-jul-2018	99.2
the sport baseball was played at n1953_world_series	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
top is found in volcano	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
giuliani is a politician who holds the office of mayor	1115	03-sep-2018	99.2