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
traditional_rectangular_shape is a geometric shape	1111	06-jul-2018	96.2
cottian_alps is a mountain range	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
possible_financial_fraud ia a crime or charge	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
small_desk is a kind of furniture	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
chocolate_nest_cakes_33g_each is a kind of candy	1111	06-jul-2018	97.6
stan_van_gundy coaches the team magic	1116	12-sep-2018	98.4
ectoparasites feeds on lice	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9
agora_theatre is a tourist attraction in the city cleveland	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
willem has citizenship in the country netherlands	1112	24-jul-2018	99.9
the country india uses the currency rupees	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0