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
shawanda_bean is a legume	1111	06-jul-2018	97.9
duke_university is a school	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
scallops_pasta_recipe is a recipe	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
discount_drugs is a drug	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
first_dorsal_metatarsal is a nerve	1111	06-jul-2018	99.2
collingswood is a city located in the state or province new_jersey	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
berlin_berlin is the capital city of the country germany	1116	12-sep-2018	98.4
boston is the home city of the sports team oakland_a_s	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
jacksonville_jaguars participated in the event games	1112	24-jul-2018	93.8
ut is a sate or province located in the country usa	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0