Vectors
A vector is a list of numbers that describes something. AI turns words, photos and songs into vectors, so that a computer can compare them. In this lesson you add vectors, measure them, and find which two are most alike.
New words
- Vector
- A list of numbers that describes one thing, like a point or an arrow.
- Dimension
- How many numbers a vector has. [3, 4] has 2 dimensions.
- Length
- How long the arrow is. It is also called the norm.
- Dot product
- Multiply the matching numbers of two vectors, then add them all.
- Cosine similarity
- A score from -1 to 1 for how much two vectors point the same way.
- Embedding
- A vector of numbers that stands for the meaning of a word or text.
What you will learn
- Where do vectors show up in AI?
- What is a vector?
- How is a 2D vector an arrow?
- How do you add and scale vectors?
- How do you find the length of a vector?
- What is the dot product?
- What is cosine similarity?
- Why do AI engineers care? Embeddings and search
- Try it: move the arrows
- What mistakes do people make?
- Explain it to a friend
- Key takeaways
10 quiz questions at the end.
The full lesson, with interactive demos and the quiz, opens after you sign in with Google. It is free.