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
fig_leaves is a vegetable	1111	06-jul-2018	92.6
center_suggestions is a sports team position	1111	06-jul-2018	99.3
steel_wire_section_steel is a building material	1111	06-jul-2018	97.1
hooper_s_mouse is a mammal	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
crystal_bed is a household item	1111	06-jul-2018	91.6
child is an animal that preys on animals	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8
sinuses is a subpart of blood	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
anthem_blue_cross is an organization known by the acronym anthem_blue_cross_and_blue_shield	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
bank_one_ballpark is a stadium or event venue located in the city downtown_phoenix	1116	12-sep-2018	99.8
tony_romo plays the sport football	1116	12-sep-2018	98.8