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
leg_step is a part of the body	1111	06-jul-2018	91.5
wsjt is a radio station	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9
sausage_spaghetti_recipe is a recipe	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
n10_8_seconds is a parlour game	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
poker_gamestexas is a board game	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
flamingo_hotel is a tourist attraction in the city las_vegas	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
florida_state was the looser of n2006_orange_bowl	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
calabay_parc is a lake in the state or province florida	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
large_herds is a generalization of deer	1111	06-jul-2018	99.6
james_monroe is a politician who holds the office of secretary	1115	03-sep-2018	99.9