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
crowne_plaza_hotel_times_square is a place to ski	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
n0_11_0 is a machine-learning algorithm	1111	06-jul-2018	99.5
dorm_doors is something found in or on buildings	1111	06-jul-2018	98.6
beckersurf_com is a retail store	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
jane_harrison is a scientist	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
clash is a musician in the genre punk	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
penn_state_nittany_lions is a sports team that plays against usc	1111	06-jul-2018	98.4
orleans_saints is a sports team that won the super_bowl	1114	25-aug-2018	93.8
carnegie was born in nueva_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
hearst is a company headquartered in the city new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	98.7