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_century_magazine is a newspaper	1111	06-jul-2018	93.5
collography is form of visual art	1111	06-jul-2018	98.6
ceiling_computer is an item found on a table	1111	06-jul-2018	99.7
fluorescent_bulb is a perception event	1111	06-jul-2018	95.5
n800_sunrise_mall is a shopping mall	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
u_s__embassy is headquartered in the country u_s_	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
istanbul_atat_rk is a generalization of temple_of_the_reclining_buddha	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0
the coach j_p__arencibia won the trophy or tournament super_bowl	1115	03-sep-2018	100.0
priscilla has husband elvis	1116	12-sep-2018	99.6
myfortic is a drug having the side effect side_effects	1114	25-aug-2018	93.8