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
lemon_meringue_pie_recipe is a recipe	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
cathedral_organ is a musical instrument	1111	06-jul-2018	95.3
postoperative_period is a non-disease physiological condition	1111	06-jul-2018	94.0
aiprosoft_ps3_video_converter is a consumer electronic device	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
thayer_david is an actor	1111	06-jul-2018	98.9
dan is a person who has attended the school state	1112	24-jul-2018	93.8
the sport baseball was played at n1953_world_series	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
jerusalem is a city also known as ashdod	1112	24-jul-2018	93.8
hot_water is often found in bathrooms	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
stephen_harper was born in the state or province ontario	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0