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
hair_growth_medications is a personal care product	1111	06-jul-2018	99.1
southern_cream_gravy is a condiment	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
gas_plays is a weapon	1111	06-jul-2018	96.2
st___roch_cemetery is a place of worship	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
chestnut_winged_whistling_thrush is a bird	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
holiday_inn is a hotel in the city new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
cal_ripken_jr is a person also known as j_r__smith	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
n71 is the number of people killed in the event nigerian_bus_station_bombing_kills_71_on_edge_of_capital	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
research is a building located in the city las_vegas	1116	12-sep-2018	99.9
dane_county_regional is an airport in the city madison	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0