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
robert_h__frank is a scientist	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
descending_branch_of_hypoglossal_nerve is a nerve	1111	06-jul-2018	98.2
al_levine is an athlete	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
broadleaf_deciduous_trees is a plant	1111	06-jul-2018	99.5
hundred_nuclear_weapons is a weapon	1111	06-jul-2018	98.5
crabs is a type of shellfish	1116	12-sep-2018	99.2
ants is a synonym for spiders	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
directors is a person who has residence in the geopolitical location national	1114	25-aug-2018	99.8
robert_iger is a top member of the_walt_disney_co_	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
large_herds refers to more than one elephants	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9