CADE METZ2026年9月29日For nearly two years, companies like Anthropic, OpenAI and Google have accused Chinese companies of unfairly copying their artificial intelligence technologies. As the Chinese leader Xi Jinping visits President Trump this week in Washington, these claims have become a flashpoint in their discussions.近两年来，Anthropic、OpenAI及谷歌等公司频繁指责中国企业不公平地挪用其人工智能技术。随着中国国家主席习近平本周访问华盛顿并与特朗普总统举行会晤，这一指控已成为双方会谈的焦点问题之一。Amid growing concern over the dangers of A.I., the leaders are expected to discuss the rapid rise of the technology, with many U.S. officials, tech executives and everyday people calling for a slowdown. American companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are leading the A.I. race, but Chinese start-ups like Z.ai and Moonshot are not far behind.在外界对AI潜在风险的担忧日益加剧之际，两国领导人预计将就该技术的快速崛起展开讨论；与此同时，众多美国官员、科技高管及普通民众纷纷呼吁放慢发展步伐。虽然Anthropic和OpenAI等美国企业在AI竞赛中处于领先地位，但以智谱和月之暗面为代表的中国初创企业同样紧追不舍。One of the more contentious issues on the table is Silicon Valley’s repeated claim that Chinese companies are copying the leading American technologies using a technique called “distillation.”双方会谈中最具争议的议题之一是硅谷反复提及的指控——即中国公司正利用一种叫做“蒸馏”的技术挪用美国领先的AI技术。Many experts say the claims from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are overblown. “The narrative that all of the capabilities of the Chinese technologies coming from an Anthropic model is not as true as people say it is,” said Charles O’Neill, a head of model training at Baseten, a U.S. company that sells access to Chinese technologies.许多专家指出，Anthropic与OpenAI等公司的上述说法有夸大之嫌。销售中国技术接口服务的美国公司Baseten模型训练负责人查尔斯·奥尼尔表示：“‘中国技术的全部能力均源自Anthropic模型’这种说法远非人们所传的那样属实。”Here is a guide to a niche technical process that has now become a geopolitical issue.本文意在解释一个不为大众所知的技术流程是如何成为一个地缘政治问题的。What exactly is distillation?什么是蒸馏？First developed in the early 2010s, distillation was initially a way for A.I. researchers to build more efficient technologies. Using this technique, they could collect data from an established system and use that data to build a new system able to run on less expensive hardware.蒸馏技术最早开发于2010年代初，是AI研究人员用于构建更高效技术的一种手段。通过该技术，研究人员可以从成熟系统中提取数据，并利用这些数据构建出能够在更低成本硬件上运行的新系统。“Think of one model as the teacher and the other as a student,” Geoffrey Hinton, a former Google researcher who helped develop the technique, recently told The Times.曾参与开发该技术的谷歌前研究员杰弗里·辛顿此前在接受《纽约时报》采访时解释道：“可以把其中一个模型看作老师，另一个看作学生。”Companies still use distillation in this way. But more recently, the technique has also become a way for companies to collect data from technologies built by others.如今各家企业依然在沿用这种蒸馏手段。但近年来，该技术也演变成了企业从他人构建的技术中收集数据的一种途径。Basically, an outside company looking to distill a competitor’s system will set up many accounts on the competitor’s service, say Anthropic’s Claude or OpenAI’s GPT. The distilling company will then assign those systems to particular tasks, such as computer coding or mathematics.简而言之，意图蒸馏竞争对手系统的外部公司会在对方的服务（如Anthropic的Claude或OpenAI的GPT）上注册大量账户，随后将这些系统指定用于特定的任务，例如计算机编程或数学运算。The distiller can then use the information generated by these established A.I. systems to help train a new system of their own.蒸馏方随后即可利用这些成熟AI系统生成的信息辅助训练自身的全新系统。Is distillation illegal?蒸馏是否违法？Some legal scholars say that distillation could violate the Defend Trade Secrets Act, a law that allows companies to sue over the theft of trade secrets. But U.S. courts have not decided this issue.部分法律学者指出，蒸馏行为可能违反《保护商业秘密法》，企业可以依据该法就商业秘密盗窃行为提起诉讼。不过，美国法院尚未对这一问题作出明确裁决。Copyright law does not necessarily apply, because distillation is an effort to copy the general behavior of the system rather than to copy its text word for word.版权法并不一定适用于此类情况，因为蒸馏旨在复制系统的总体行为逻辑，而非逐字逐句地抄袭其文本。Critics of Anthropic and OpenAI point out that the two companies have engaged in similar behavior.Anthropic和OpenAI的批评者指出，这两家公司自身也有类似行为。Anthropic is facing multiple lawsuits that accuse the San Francisco start-up of illegally using copyrighted internet data to train its systems. Last year, as part of a landmark legal settlement, the company agreed to pay $1.5 billion to a group of authors and publishers after a judge ruled that it had illegally downloaded and stored millions of copyrighted books. The settlement was the largest payout in the history of U.S. copyright cases.Anthropic被指控非法使用受版权保护的互联网数据训练其系统，目前正面临多起诉讼。去年，在法官认定其非法下载并存储了数百万本受版权保护的书籍后，公司在一项里程碑式的法律和解协议中同意向一组作者及出版商支付15亿美元赔偿。该和解金额创下了美国版权诉讼史上的最高赔偿纪录。OpenAI and other companies face similar suits, including one brought by The New York Times in 2023. That suit contends that OpenAI and its partner Microsoft used millions of articles published by The Times to train chatbots, which now compete with the news outlet as a source of information. OpenAI and Microsoft deny the claims.OpenAI及其他公司亦面临类似诉讼，其中包括《纽约时报》于2023年发起的诉讼。该诉讼指控OpenAI及其合作伙伴微软使用《纽约时报》发表的数百万篇文章训练聊天机器人，而这些机器人如今正作为信息来源与新闻媒体展开竞争。OpenAI和微软对相关指控予以否认。Are Chinese companies really copying American systems?中国公司是否真的在挪用美国系统？Chinese firms have most likely distilled proprietary American systems. But it is not completely clear what they have done.中国企业极有可能蒸馏了美国的专有系统，但它们具体的操作细节尚不得而知。After the Chinese start-up DeepSeek shocked American researchers and investors last year by releasing a particularly powerful and efficient system, OpenAI accused DeepSeek of distilling its technologies.在中国初创企业DeepSeek去年通过发布一款兼具高效与强悍性能的系统震动美国研究员与投资者后，OpenAI曾公开指责该公司蒸馏其技术。As Chinese systems continued to improve over the past nine months, Anthropic made similar claims. In June, Anthropic sent a letter to Senators Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren, accusing the Chinese tech giant Alibaba of distilling its technologies.随着中国系统的性能在过去九个月中持续提升，Anthropic也提出了类似的指控。今年6月，Anthropic致信参议员蒂姆·斯科特与伊丽莎白·沃伦，指责中国科技巨头阿里巴巴蒸馏其技术。The Chinese companies have not responded publicly to the accusations.对此，相关中国企业尚未作出公开回应。Does distillation alone explain how China’s models remain competitive?仅凭蒸馏是否足以解释中国大模型何以保持竞争力？No. When companies distill a proprietary system, they only have access to part of it: the words and characters and other data generated by the system. They do not have access to the system’s underlying computer code, as they would with an open source technology.答案是否定的。当企业对专有系统进行蒸馏时，它们所能获取的仅限于系统生成的数据（如词语、字符等输出内容），而无法像对待开源技术那样，接触到系统底层的源代码。Using outputs from a proprietary system like Claude Fable from Anthropic , a Chinese company can accelerate the development of its own technology. But those outputs are only part of the puzzle.利用Anthropic的Claude Fable等专有系统的输出内容，中国企业确实可以加速自身技术的开发进程，但这些输出仅仅是整个技术图景的一部分。“You are not getting access to everything you would use when you are distilling your model in-house,” said Rehaan Ahmad, a co-founder of the Silicon Valley start-up alphaXiv, a company that tracks the latest A.I. research.追踪最新AI研究的硅谷初创公司alphaXiv联合创始人里汉·阿赫迈德指出：“你在内部蒸馏自家模型时能用到的底层要素，通过这种外部方式是根本无法获取的。”Before using those outputs, a Chinese company must first build a system that is already pretty powerful in its own right. Through distillation, it can then hone this model in important ways, but this requires additional work, money, computing power and talent.在利用这些输出内容之前，中国企业必须首先自主构建出一个本身就具备相当实力的系统。随后，企业虽可通过蒸馏在关键维度打磨模型，但这依然需要投入更多的精力、资金、算力以及人才。Can Anthropic and OpenAI stop companies from distilling?Anthropic与OpenAI能否阻止其他公司实施蒸馏？They can curb the practice — and they have tried.它们可以采取手段遏制这种做法，且事实上也有过尝试。If Anthropic or OpenAI suspect that someone is distilling their systems, they may shut down the offender’s account. But others will most likely pop up. And if Anthropic and OpenAI shut down too many accounts, they may end up barring legitimate users.一旦Anthropic或OpenAI怀疑有人在蒸馏其系统，可能会封禁违规者的账户。然而，新的违规账户很可能会接踵而至；而如果封锁过于频繁，两家公司最终可能会误伤合法用户。“It is basically impossible to stop distillation,” Lino Le Van, another alphaXiv researcher, said.另一位alphaXiv研究员利诺·勒万表示：“想要彻底杜绝蒸馏，在现实中几乎是不可能的。”Cade Metz撰写有关人工智能、无人驾驶汽车、机器人、虚拟现实和其他技术新兴领域的新闻。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。获取更多RSS：https://feedx.net https://feedx.site