We consider the case where the outputs/targets, also called the responses or the outcomes, \( y_i \) are discrete and only take values from \( k=0,\dots,K-1 \) (i.e. \( K \) classes).
The goal is to predict the output classes from the design matrix \( \boldsymbol{X}\in\mathbb{R}^{n\times p} \) made of \( n \) samples, each of which carries \( p \) features or predictors. The primary goal is to identify the classes to which new unseen samples belong.
Last week we specialized to the case of two classes only, with outputs \( y_i=0 \) and \( y_i=1 \). Our outcomes could represent the status of a credit card user that could default or not on her/his credit card debt. That is
$$ y_i = \begin{bmatrix} 0 & \mathrm{no}\\ 1 & \mathrm{yes} \end{bmatrix}. $$