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
chair_cushion is an item found on the floor	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
lexus_gs400_engines is a kind of automobile engine	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
quick_texas is a board game	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
rilett_s_salamander is an amphibian	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
ward_doors is something found in or on buildings	1111	06-jul-2018	98.5
eve is the mother of life	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
fiumicino_airport is an airport in the city rome	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
dane_county_regional is an attraction that will be fall in city madison	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
robert_heinlein contributed to the creative work stranger_in_a_strange_land	1112	24-jul-2018	99.6
cost is an agricultural product that is usually cut into percent	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0