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
sony_psp_memory_stick is a consumer electronic device	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
principal_manager is a job position	1111	06-jul-2018	98.8
poker_lederer is a cardgame	1111	06-jul-2018	93.6
william_yates is a scientist	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
papillomavirus_type is a virus	1111	06-jul-2018	96.6
bed is often found in one_bed_room	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
spider_mites is a type of bugs	1111	06-jul-2018	98.4
white_trash_fast_food is a restaurant in the city berlin	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
times is a newspaper in the city beijing	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
the_tennessee_aquarium is an aquarium in the city chattanooga	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0