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
two_cranberry is a parlour game	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
common_lowland_paramelomys is a vertebrate	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
chair_mould is a fungus	1111	06-jul-2018	97.7
micromonospora_viridifaciens is a bacterium	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
long_billed_blue_flycatcher is a bird	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
european_countries is a generalization of russia	1116	12-sep-2018	99.9
greyhound_bus is a transportation system located in the city new_york	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
shell_oil is a company also known as shell_oil	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
brit_oval is related to banking_turbotax_online_insurance_insurance_quotes_home_insurance_health	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
stan_van_gundy coaches the team magic	1116	12-sep-2018	98.4