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
blackfin_hookear_sculpin is a fish	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
level_table is a household item	1111	06-jul-2018	95.6
eastern_long_toed_salamander is an amphibian	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
warming_map is a physical action	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
poker_game_poker_game is a board game	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
arachnids is an arthropod that looks like insects	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
the companies herald_tribune and chicago001 compete with eachother	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
the sports leage nascar_craftsman_truck_series uses the venue international_speedway	1114	25-aug-2018	96.9
jo_jo_reyes plays the sport baseball	1116	12-sep-2018	99.9
ray_rice coaches in the league nfl	1116	12-sep-2018	99.2