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
onlinepoker_texas is a non-sports, non-electronic game	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
microwave_safe_cup is an item found in the kitchen	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
veterans_rights is a socio-political term	1111	06-jul-2018	94.8
mexican_red_knee_tarantula is an arachnid	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
system_create is a video game system	1111	06-jul-2018	98.7
austin_dean_coobs was born in the state or province iowa	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
turtles is an animal that preys on reptiles	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
the sports team yankees was the winner of n1962_world_series	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
feeders is an animal that is a kind of larvae	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
adam_liptak works for new_york_times	1112	24-jul-2018	99.6