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
memo_paper is an office supply	1113	15-aug-2018	95.0
nationshealth_inc is a biotech company	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
mendenhall_lake is a lake	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
gasoline_grades is a refinery product	1111	06-jul-2018	92.7
linda_kozlowski is a Canadian person	1111	06-jul-2018	92.1
bombs is a type of weapon produced in russia	1113	15-aug-2018	99.8
le_devoir is a newspaper in the city montreal	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
chevrolet makes the automobile ford_taurus	1114	25-aug-2018	99.2
senate hired state	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
shower is often found in baths	1116	12-sep-2018	94.0