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
poker_game_poker_game is a non-sports, non-electronic game	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
circulation_loss is a disease	1111	06-jul-2018	94.2
dog_tick is an arthropod	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
canada_home is a museum	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
instructing is a physical action	1111	06-jul-2018	90.6
washington is a state that is bordered by the state vermont	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8
shirt is a clothing item to go with cloak	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
sleepy_hollow_presbyterian_church is a place of worship that practices the religion of presbyterianism	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
union_memorial is a hospital in the city baltimore	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
n10_30_pm is the time of the event n2014_peshawar_school_massacre	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0