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
christian_doppler is a scientist	1111	06-jul-2018	96.2
major_cells is a type of biological cell	1111	06-jul-2018	98.5
shiraz_zinfandel is a wine	1111	06-jul-2018	98.6
alfred_laubmann is a monarch	1111	06-jul-2018	98.5
aiseesoft_mac_nexus_one_video_converter is a consumer electronic device	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
name is a drug having the side effect side_effects	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
bruno_bettelheim died in the state or province colorado	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
lucy has spouse paul001	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8
black_pepper is an agricultural product that is usually cooked with pasta	1114	25-aug-2018	96.9
national is a bank that bought united_bank_of_india	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0