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
graphic_artists_guild is a trade union	1112	24-jul-2018	96.8
phoenix_international is a building	1111	06-jul-2018	92.7
proposed_meeting is a perception action	1111	06-jul-2018	93.5
felony_weapons_possession ia a crime or charge	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
childs_lake is a trail	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
middle a muscle located in bodypart arms	1115	03-sep-2018	99.6
red_wings is a sports team also known as pittsburgh_penguins	1113	15-aug-2018	100.0
child is an animal that preys on animals	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8
times is a newspaper in the city beijing	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
general is a company that has an office in the country japan	1113	15-aug-2018	93.8