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
gauge_paper is an office supply	1111	06-jul-2018	92.9
diversion_magazine is a website	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
soy_protein_powder is a food	1111	06-jul-2018	98.3
jemimah_goosen is a fashion model	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
southern_barbecue_sauce is a condiment	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
the_times is a company headquartered in the city new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
barry_bonds plays the athletic team position player	1115	03-sep-2018	99.9
italian is a language used in the university rutgers_university	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
postal_service_priority_mail is an organization known by the acronym ups_express	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
giuliani is a U.S. politician who holds the office of mayor	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0