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
graphic_artists_guild is a trade union	1112	24-jul-2018	96.8
cart_return is a product	1111	06-jul-2018	92.2
dodge_aspen_fuel is a model of automobile	1111	06-jul-2018	99.2
online_gambling_awards is an award, championship, or tournament trophy	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
n12559 is a ZIP code	1112	24-jul-2018	99.8
black_widow is an animal that is a kind of spiders	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
international_education is an academic program at the university college	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
weapons is a type of weapon produced in china	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
national is a company that has an office in the country ireland	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
san_francisco is the location of the event n1906_san_francisco_earthquake	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0