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
inferior_mesenteric is a vein	1111	06-jul-2018	97.4
carroll_county_regional_airport is a transportation system	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
english_hills is a mountain range	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
emporia_state_university is a sports team	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
master_bath_tub is an item often found in a bathroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
jonathan held the position of king	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
bellagio_fountains is a building located in the city las_vegas	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
kiffin works for usc	1111	06-jul-2018	98.4
the country ireland uses the currency punt	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
short_skirts is a clothing item to go with socks	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8