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
audrey_reid is a commedian	1111	06-jul-2018	92.3
linen___towels is an item often found in a bathroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
division_iii_championship is an award, championship, or tournament trophy	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
superior_oblique_capitis_muscle is a muscle	1111	06-jul-2018	99.4
ontario_elections is an election	1111	06-jul-2018	98.7
clark plays the athletic team position player	1114	25-aug-2018	99.6
shrubbery is a plant that is a kind of palm	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
gillette_stadium is the home venue for the sports team new_england_patriots	1116	12-sep-2018	99.2
snakes is an animal that preys on reptiles	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
british_museum is a tourist attraction in the city central_london	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0