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
shalonda_bean is a legume	1111	06-jul-2018	97.9
johann_baptist_hofner is a visual artist	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
windy_ridge_cellars is a winery	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
two_spotted_spider_mite is an insect	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
dj_perry is a male	1111	06-jul-2018	90.1
mike_jackson held the position of chief_executive	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
folk_music is a generalization of rock	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
pascal_yoadimadji died in the city paris	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
uk_department is headquartered in the country us	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
tv is a product that is a kind of player	1115	03-sep-2018	99.9