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
licensed_pharmacist is a job position	1111	06-jul-2018	96.8
dilated_inferior_mesenteric_vein is a vein	1111	06-jul-2018	94.8
n2001_05_23 is a year	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
quaker_ave is a highway	1111	06-jul-2018	92.8
tomato_leaves is an agricultural product	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
trees is a plant that is a kind of longleaf_pines	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
bobby_gilbert was born in the state or province pennsylvania	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
u_s__marine_corps is headquartered in the country u_s_	1116	12-sep-2018	99.9
flannels is a clothing item to go with jacket	1111	06-jul-2018	93.8
emily_sunstein belongs to the religion jewish	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0