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
actors_and_artists_of_america is a trade union	1112	24-jul-2018	90.2
anthony_john_denison is a Canadian person	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
supernal_light is a perception event	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
troup_volvo is an automobile manufacturer	1111	06-jul-2018	95.5
sub_sections is a legislative bill	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
finland is the capital city of the country finland	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
biz_stone is a top member of facebook	1116	12-sep-2018	98.4
gmc is a specific automobile maker dealer in canada	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
central_sierra_nevada is a mountain in the state or province california	1116	12-sep-2018	99.6
children is an animal that can develop disorders_face	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8