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
posterior_vena_cava is a vein	1111	06-jul-2018	98.8
pinelands can be a part of a landscape	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
physical_healing is a physical action	1111	06-jul-2018	93.0
number_two_pencils is an office supply	1115	03-sep-2018	92.3
new_york_times_news_service is a website	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
the companies outside_magazine and new_york compete with eachother	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
world_series is a awardtrophytournament that was awarded in stadiumoreventvenue u_s__bank_arena	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
national is a company that has an office in the country peru	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
steve_logan coaches the team pirates	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
the coach dmitri_young won the trophy or tournament world_series	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0