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
trevor_hoffman is a Mexican person	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
_0_7_percent is a machine-learning algorithm	1111	06-jul-2018	99.1
duodenal_ulcers is a disease	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
inferior_pars_of_superior_frontal_gyrus is a kind of brain tissue	1111	06-jul-2018	97.0
shell_molds is a fungus	1111	06-jul-2018	92.1
u_s__sen_ is a person who has residence in the geopolitical location georgia	1116	12-sep-2018	98.4
stuttgart is the capital city of the state or province baden_w_rttemberg	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
louise_story is a journalist that writes for the publication new_york_times	1111	06-jul-2018	98.4
mary is the parent of yeshua	1115	03-sep-2018	98.4
washington is a state that is bordered by the state vermont	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8