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
n1_65 is a performance metric used by machine-learning scientists	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
top_quality_devices is a weapon	1111	06-jul-2018	97.2
inflatable_l_shape_sofa_chair is an item found on the floor	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
large_multinucleated_cells is a type of biological cell	1111	06-jul-2018	96.5
hemiazygos_vein is an artery	1111	06-jul-2018	99.3
manny_diaz is the leader of the city miami	1116	12-sep-2018	98.6
national is a company that has an office in the country italy	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
fdr is a U.S. politician who holds the office of secretary	1113	15-aug-2018	99.7
judas_iscariot has brother jesus	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
chicken is an animal that eats stuffing	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0