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
big_mouth_bbq_sauce is a condiment	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
rights_obligation is a political issue	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
trappist_beer is a beverage	1111	06-jul-2018	94.9
tea_tree_shampoo is a personal care product	1111	06-jul-2018	99.4
gasoline_products is a refinery product	1111	06-jul-2018	94.3
komo_tv is a company that has an office in the city seattle	1112	24-jul-2018	99.9
bedroom is often found in site	1116	12-sep-2018	99.8
vt is a sate or province located in the country usa	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
targets is a subpart of water	1111	06-jul-2018	99.2
expansion is found in valley	1115	03-sep-2018	93.8