Word2Vec is a groundbreaking deep learning algorithm developed to create dense vector representations, or embeddings, of words based on their contextual usage in large text corpora. Unlike traditional methods like bag-of-words or TF-IDF, which rely on frequency counts and often result in sparse vectors, Word2Vec employs neural networks to learn continuous vector spaces where semantically similar words are positioned closer together. This enables machines to capture nuances such as synonyms, analogies, and relationships (e.g., "king" - "man" + "woman" ≈ "queen"). The algorithm operates through two primary architectures: Continuous Bag-of-Words (CBOW), which predicts a target word from its surrounding context, and Skip-Gram, which does the reverse by predicting context words from a target word. Skip-Gram is particularly effective for rare words and larger datasets, while CBOW is faster and better for frequent words. In the context of NVIDIA's Generative AI and LLMs course, Word2Vec is highlighted as a foundational step in the evolution of text embeddings in natural language processing (NLP) tasks, paving the way for more advanced models like RNN-based embeddings and Transformers. This is essential for understanding how LLMs build upon these embeddings for tasks such as semantic analysis and language generation. Exact extract from the course description: "Understand how text embeddings have rapidly evolved in NLP tasks such as Word2Vec, recurrent neural network (RNN)-based embeddings, and Transformers." This positions Word2Vec as a key deep learning technique for generating meaningful word vectors from text data, distinguishing it from mere statistical frequency analysis or unrelated tools like programming languages or databases