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
small_hidden_door is an item often found in a hallway	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
librarianship is an academic field	1111	06-jul-2018	91.0
digital_wall_clock is an item often found in a bedroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
chair_ottomans is a kind of furniture	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
cannabis_offenses ia a crime or charge	1111	06-jul-2018	90.5
thomas_meskill died in the city delray_beach	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
indira_gandhi_international_airport is a generalization of temple_of_the_reclining_buddha	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
discount_hotels is an attraction that will be fall in city louisiana	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
tanglewood is a stadium or event venue located in the city boston	1116	12-sep-2018	99.8
oil is an agricultural product that is usually cooked with white_beans	1112	24-jul-2018	99.2