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
leather_couches is an item found on the floor	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
manu_intiraymi ia a celebrity	1111	06-jul-2018	90.7
semiaquatic_treefrog is an amphibian	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
mozz is a food	1111	06-jul-2018	97.8
brief_picture is form of visual art	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9
federico_fellini directed the movie la_dolce_vita	1114	25-aug-2018	99.2
hornets_basketball_livestream_29_02_2012 is a sports team that plays in the league nba	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
alberta is a state or province located in the geopolitical location north_america	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9
kcop_tv is headquartered in the city los_angeles_ca	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
craig_biggio is an athlete that flied out to position center	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0