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
radios_ipod_alarm_clock is an item often found in a bedroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
necessary_changes is a cognitive action	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
ubiquitous_computer is an item found on a table	1111	06-jul-2018	91.3
free_insurance is an economic sector	1111	06-jul-2018	95.9
union_of_forces_dla_change_or_ufc is a political party	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
antioch is a city located in the country syria	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
roger_clemens is an athlete who wins world_series	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
olaf_scholz is the leader of the city hamburg	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
tux is a clothing item to go with tie	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
interdigital_communications_corporation is a company also known as interdigital	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8