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
hoffman_la_roche has human agency	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
steel_tumbler is an item found in the kitchen	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
professional_associate is a job position	1111	06-jul-2018	94.9
battle_of_friedlingen is a military conflict	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
zoo_neunkirchen is a zoo	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
lake_missaukee is a lake in the state or province michigan	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
n1_8_inch looks like display001	1114	25-aug-2018	99.9
richard_wright contributed to the creative work black_boy	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
kexp is a radio station in the city seattle	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
akron hired j_d__brookhart	1112	24-jul-2018	96.7