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
screen_writers_guild is a trade union	1111	06-jul-2018	91.4
spilling is a physical action	1111	06-jul-2018	94.8
seed_oats is a grain	1111	06-jul-2018	94.0
linda_offenheiser is a writer	1111	06-jul-2018	91.5
vilenica_cave is a cave	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
super_bowl_xliv_the_indianapolis_colts is headquartered in the state or province new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
the sports team yankees was the winner of n2003_alcs	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
red_maples is a plant that is a kind of trees	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
angie has husband scott	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
trenton is the capital city of the state or province new_jersey	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0