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
jillians_las_vegas is a building	1111	06-jul-2018	96.9
antiques_clock is an item found on a wall	1111	06-jul-2018	99.9
spherical_shells is a weapon	1111	06-jul-2018	98.5
inconvenience_this_problem is a cognitive action	1112	24-jul-2018	99.9
n12862 is a ZIP code	1111	06-jul-2018	99.8
buttonwood_park_zoo is an aquarium in the city new_bedford	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
nuclear_arms is a type of weapon produced in china	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
gary_payton is an athlete coached by mike_woodson	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
the sports team eventual_super_bowl_champion_new_york_giants was the winner of n1905_world_series	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
canadian_islamic_congress is an organization known by the acronym cjc	1114	25-aug-2018	100.0