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
children_s_magic_window_magazine is a magazine	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
animal_reservoirs is an animal	1111	06-jul-2018	94.9
georgia_florida_league is a sports league	1116	12-sep-2018	95.2
n1998_playoffs is a sports game	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
prepaid_cell_phones is an item found on a table	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
the_great_mosque_of_taza is a place of worship that practices the religion of islam	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
j__k__rowling contributed to the creative work harry_potter	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
salmon_steaks is a fish that can be served with the food sauce in a meal (or dish)	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
commercial_appeal is a newspaper in the city memphis	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
perennial_herbs is an agricultural product produced in __america	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8