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
porch_doors is an item often found in a hallway	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
josh_bernstein is an author in the scientific field of machine learning	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
field_home is a location	1111	06-jul-2018	98.9
pyrenean_fire_salamander is an amphibian	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
steamcon is a convention	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
arlington_national_cemetery is an attraction that will be fall in city arlington	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
machiavelli was born in florence	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
zacarias_moussaoui belongs to the ethnic group french	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
paul_watson is a person who has residence in the state or province new_brunswick	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
holiday_inn is a hotel in the city new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0