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
dhi_qar is a state or a province	1111	06-jul-2018	97.6
teng_hiok_chiu is a visual artist	1111	06-jul-2018	92.9
massage_shower_cabinet is an item often found in a bathroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
little_wooden_door is an item often found in a hallway	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
posterior_caecal_artery is a vein	1111	06-jul-2018	98.7
opiliones is called arachnids	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
the_chicago_tribune is a newspaper in the city chicago_south	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
brown_recluse is an arthropod as well as spiders also is	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
chastain_park is a stadium or event venue located in the city atlanta	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
virgin is the mother of son_jesus	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9