Computer Science > Machine Learning
[Submitted on 28 May 2026 (v1), last revised 8 Sep 2026 (this version, v2)]
Title:The Little Book of Generative AI Foundations: An Intuitive Mathematical Primer
View PDF HTML (experimental)Abstract:This book provides a compact, derivation-oriented introduction to the mathematical foundations of modern generative artificial intelligence. Rather than surveying every recent architecture or implementation detail, it develops a coherent route through the ideas connecting major families of generative models, from PCA, probabilistic PCA, variational autoencoders, and diffusion models to normalising flows, autoregressive factorisations, GANs, Wasserstein GANs, and energy-based models. The aim is to make the structure of generative modelling more accessible without removing the mathematical substance needed to understand how these models are derived and related. The book is intended as a foundation-building primer for mathematically curious researchers, practitioners, and students.
Submission history
From: Tianhua Chen [view email][v1] Thu, 28 May 2026 10:12:00 UTC (125 KB)
[v2] Tue, 8 Sep 2026 07:17:36 UTC (1,168 KB)
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