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
hoffman_la_roche has human agency	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
generalized_clock is an item found on a wall	1111	06-jul-2018	99.5
colorado_community_revitalization_association is a professional organization	1111	06-jul-2018	90.9
door_posts is an item often found in a hallway	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
torry_holt is an athlete	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
the coach shaun_alexander won the trophy or tournament super_bowl	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
richard_nolte has brother charles_nolte	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
sweats is a clothing item to go with t_shirt	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
james_harrison plays the athletic team position player	1113	15-aug-2018	99.2
william_anderson died in the state or province va	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0