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
side_by_side_washer is a household item	1111	06-jul-2018	94.2
two_accommodation is a parlour game	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
jingle_bell_run is a sports race	1111	06-jul-2018	94.5
n11_05 is a term used by physicists	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
saab_92x_engines is a kind of automobile engine	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
marion was born in the city charleston	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
disney_world001 is a building located in the city orlando	1116	12-sep-2018	99.6
susan_sarandon starred in the movie witches_of_eastwick	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
ford is a company that produces ford_expedition	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
northern_trust is a company in the economic sector of public_sector	1112	24-jul-2018	96.9