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
cotton_plant is a plant	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
iskandariyah is a geopolitical entity that is an organization	1111	06-jul-2018	94.5
inputting is a physical action	1111	06-jul-2018	92.7
milford_iowa is an island	1111	06-jul-2018	96.7
interest_subsidy_scheme is a programming language	1111	06-jul-2018	94.1
perennial_herbs is an agricultural product produced in __america	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
starbucks_coffee_company serves iced_coffee	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
public_relations is an academic program at the university state_university	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
lee_boulevard is a street in the city savannah	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
heritage_park_zoo is an aquarium in the city prescott	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0