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
mr__show is a TV show	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
outreach_activities is a hobby	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
spectacled_sculpin is a fish	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
tariff_violations ia a crime or charge	1111	06-jul-2018	91.6
foam_chair_bed is a kind of furniture	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
william_h__macy starred in the movie fargo	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
scarlett_johansson is an actor that worked with the director woody_allen	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
new_york_islanders_5_3_saturday_night is headquartered in the state or province new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
blue_jays is a sports team that plays the sport baseball	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
bug feeds on insects	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0