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
enriched_refined_grain is a grain	1111	06-jul-2018	90.3
poker_tour_events is a board game	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
spicy_raisin_coffee_cake is a baked good	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
membrane_cofactor_protein_isoform_1_precursor is a protein	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
_java is a programming language	1111	06-jul-2018	94.2
marco_polo_airport is a generalization of temple_of_the_reclining_buddha	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
abbeville is a city located in the state or province alabama	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
air_madagascar is headquartered in the city paris	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
cells is a subpart of the body within human_bone_marrow	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
hapkido is a sport taught in the country south_korea	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0