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
questions_frequent_questions is a cognitive action	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
irs_restructuring_and_reform_act is a legislative bill	1111	06-jul-2018	91.1
class_capacity is a character trait	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
n12088 is a ZIP code	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
glass_french_door is something found in or on buildings	1111	06-jul-2018	98.3
colette contributed to the creative work claudine_at_school	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
ryan_ludwick is an athlete who led cardinals_27_23	1116	12-sep-2018	99.8
ivan_lendl is an athlete who beat john_mcenroe	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
steve_marriott is a musician who is part of small_faces	1115	03-sep-2018	93.8
houston is a city located in the geopolitical location ut	1112	24-jul-2018	92.0