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
class_lounges is a machine-learning conference	1111	06-jul-2018	94.9
penny_pond is a lake	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
n38_shots is a weapon	1111	06-jul-2018	97.5
port_of_vila_do_conde is a transportation port	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
dinner_spoon is an item found on a table	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
nissan terminated the employment of carlos_ghosn	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
notting_hill is a park in the city central_london	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
great_ormond_street is a hospital in the city central_london	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
sean_penn starred in the movie into_the_wild	1115	03-sep-2018	93.8
penn_state_nittany_lions is a sports team that plays against usc	1111	06-jul-2018	98.4