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
wkxg is a radio station	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9
section_213_ is a legislative bill	1111	06-jul-2018	97.4
writing_pads is an office supply	1111	06-jul-2018	98.0
the_campbell_brothers is a musical artist	1111	06-jul-2018	98.2
spanner_crab is a crustacean	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
large_herds is a generalization of wildebeest	1111	06-jul-2018	99.2
felix_pie is an athlete who led chicago_cubs	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
washington_dulles is an airport in the city washington_d_c_	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
publisher_applications is a synonym for microsoft_corporation001	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
roissy_charles_de_gaulle is a building located in the city paris	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0