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
logistic_function is a machine-learning algorithm	1111	06-jul-2018	98.3
soup_with_dumplings_recipe is a recipe	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
when_a_man_loves_a_woman is a musical album	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
ho_chi_minh_city is a location	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
jelly_beans_pina_colada is a kind of candy	1111	06-jul-2018	99.1
earnest_byner plays the athletic team position running_back	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
spaghetti_straps is a clothing item to go with dresses	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
washington has been charged with murder	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8
blood has color red	1115	03-sep-2018	98.4
ktm is a specific automobile maker dealer in _uk	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0