Read the Web :: Carnegie Mellon University

NELL: Never-Ending Language Learning

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.

instance	iteration	date learned	confidence
fleshy_leaves is a vegetable	1111	06-jul-2018	92.4
sleigh_bed is an item often found in a bedroom	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
psp_extended_battery_pack is a consumer electronic device	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
seed_beans is a grain	1111	06-jul-2018	90.2
number_two_pencils is an office supply	1115	03-sep-2018	92.3

washington_d_c_ is a city located in the geopolitical location dc	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
washington is a state that is bordered by the state alaska	1113	15-aug-2018	98.4
plain_dealer is a newspaper in the city cleveland	1116	12-sep-2018	96.9
saint_louis is the home city of the sports team st___louis_university	1116	12-sep-2018	99.9
chicken is an animal that eats rosemary	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0

Read the Web
Research Project at Carnegie Mellon University

NELL: Never-Ending Language Learning

Recently-Learned Facts