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
scrapbook_publications is a kind of media	1111	06-jul-2018	99.4
contact_the_administration_department is a visualizable object	1111	06-jul-2018	98.5
proposed_meeting is a perception action	1111	06-jul-2018	93.5
generalized_clock is an item found on a wall	1111	06-jul-2018	99.5
rufous_crowned_tody_flycatcher is a bird	1112	24-jul-2018	100.0
mccarran is an airport in the city las_vegas	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
the home stadium of andrew_shaw is wrigley_field	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
chicken is an animal that eats bread_crumbs	1111	06-jul-2018	100.0
bruno_bettelheim died in the state or province colorado	1116	12-sep-2018	100.0
the sports team new_england_patriots was the winner of super_bowl_xxxviii	1116	12-sep-2018	93.8