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
al_storm is a weather phenomenon	1111	06-jul-2018	97.8
table_repair is an item found on the floor	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
lentectomy_lesionectomy is a medical procedure	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
development_education is a political issue	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
covantage_credit_union is a bank	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
cells is a subpart of the body within human_umbilical_cord_blood	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9
insects is a type of dragonflies	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
mccormick_place is a stadium or event venue located in the city chicago_south	1116	12-sep-2018	99.8
reggie_bush and brees are teammates	1112	24-jul-2018	99.6
english is a language used in the university florida_state_university	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0