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
david_finley is a chef	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
rooms_description_the_welcoming_rooms is an office building room	1111	06-jul-2018	98.3
line_mental_health_insurance is an economic sector	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
sketch_markers is an office supply	1111	06-jul-2018	90.4
department_students is a victim	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
science concerns management	1114	25-aug-2018	99.7
toilets is often found in rooms	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
verizon_center is the home venue for the sports team georgetown_hoyas_basketball	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
edward_johnson is a politician who holds the office of president	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
cells is a subpart of the body within umbilical_cord	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0