This document provides an outline and introduction to a course on mathematics for artificial intelligence, with a focus on vector spaces and linear algebra. It discusses:
1. A brief history of linear algebra, from ancient Babylonians solving systems of equations to modern definitions of matrices.
2. The definition of a vector space as a set that can be added and multiplied by elements of a field, with properties like closure under addition and scalar multiplication.
3. Examples of using matrices and vectors to model systems of linear equations and probabilities of transitions between web pages.
4. The importance of linear algebra concepts like bases, dimensions, and eigenvectors/eigenvalues for machine learning applications involving feature vectors and least squares error.