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
aluminum_clad_doors is something found in or on buildings	1111	06-jul-2018	98.2
master_bath_tub is an item often found in a bathroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
lockheed_martin is an organization	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
steve_hackney is an astronaut	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
light_color is a visualizable attribute	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
james_monroe is a politician who holds the office of secretary	1115	03-sep-2018	99.9
soft_drinks is an agricultural product that contains corn_syrup	1112	24-jul-2018	99.6
the sport baseball was played at n2004_world_series	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
the companies paper and new_york compete with eachother	1111	06-jul-2018	98.4
roger_cohen is a journalist that writes for the publication new_york_times	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0