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
jim_calhoun is an athlete	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
ringtone_mouse is an item found on a table	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
mature_tree is a plant	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
giant_octopus is a mollusk	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
prescription_xanax_effects is a muscle	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
china_construction_bank is a bank in china	1114	25-aug-2018	99.4
u_s__bureau_of_labor_statistics is headquartered in the country u_s_	1116	12-sep-2018	99.2
pillsbury_hall is related to university_of_minnesota	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
Eating tea_consumption decreases the risk of cancer	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
tarantulas is called spiders	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0