Vector embeddings: Difference between revisions

==Understanding Vector Embeddings==

In the context of text data, words with similar meanings, such as "dog" and "puppy", must be represented to capture their [[semantic similarity]]. [[Vector representation]]s achieve this by transforming data objects into arrays of real numbers with a fixed length, typically ranging from hundreds to thousands of elements. These arrays are generated by machine learning models through a process called [[vectorization]].

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These vectors exhibit a high similarity, while vectors for words like "banjo" or "comedy" would not be similar to either of these. In this way, vector embeddings capture the semantic similarity of words. The specific meaning of each number in a vector depends on the machine learning model that generated the vectors, and is not always clear in terms of human understanding of language and meaning.

Vector-based representation of meaning has gained attention due to its ability to perform mathematical operations between words, revealing semantic relationships. A famous example is:

This result suggests that the difference between "king" and "man" represents some sort of "royalty", which is analogously applicable to "queen" minus "woman". Various concepts, such as "woman", "girl", "boy", etc., can be vectorized into arrays of numbers, often referred to as dimensions. These arrays can be visualized and correlated to familiar words, giving insight into their meaning.

Vector embeddings can represent more than just word meanings. They can effectively be generated from any data object, including [[text]], [[images]], [[audio]], [[time series data]], [[3D models]], [[video]], and [[molecules]]. Embeddings are constructed such that two objects with similar semantics have vectors that are "close" to each other in vector space, with a "small" distance between them.