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
clarence_w__nelson is an astronaut	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
sliced_steak is a type of meat	1111	06-jul-2018	99.0
american_university is a school	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
monitor_speakers is a consumer electronic device	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
recipe_lima_beans is a recipe	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
the country jamaica uses the currency dollars	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
middlesex_turnpike is a street in the city bedford	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
the home stadium of ernie_banks is wrigley_field	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
anapa is a city located in the geopolitical location russia	1113	15-aug-2018	99.8
mccarran is an airport in the city las_vegas	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0