Anthropic的收入增长在第三季度放缓，令一些投资者失望，因为这家AI初创公司正准备上市。至少部分放缓有一个有趣的解释：该公司可能正在变得更擅长阻止竞争对手窃取其AI机密。我的同事Stephen Council周三报道称，Anthropic在第三季度实现了168亿美元的收入。虽然按几乎任何标准来看，这都是令人印象深刻的增长，但相比今年早些时候，这是一种放缓。
Anthropic's revenue growth slowed in the third quarter, disappointing some investors as the AI startup prepares to go public. There's an intriguing explanation for at least part of the slowdown: The company may be getting better at stopping rivals from stealing its AI secrets. Anthropic generated $16.8 billion in revenue during the third quarter, my colleague Stephen Council reported on Wednesday. While that's impressive growth by almost any standard, but it's a slowdown from earlier in the year.
事情就在这里变得有趣起来。Anthropic本周向潜在投资者透露，其5%至7%的收入来自一种称为“蒸馏”的行为，据《The Information》报道。这是指竞争对手的AI开发者使用Anthropic的Claude模型来帮助训练他们自己的竞争系统。一种做法是创建数千个Anthropic账户，并用精心挑选的问题轰炸Claude。竞争对手收集这些答案，并用它们来教自己的AI模型如何执行类似任务。
Here's where things get interesting. Anthropic told prospective investors this week that 5% to 7% of its revenue comes from something called distillation, The Information reported. This is when rival AI developers use Anthropic's Claude models to help train their own competing systems. One way to do this is to create thousands of Anthropic accounts and bombard Claude with carefully chosen questions. The rivals collect the answers and use them to teach their own AI models how to perform similar tasks.
所有这些“蒸馏”账户和问题都为Anthropic带来收入，尽管这些客户实际上正试图复制其技术。Anthropic多次指责中国AI公司进行此类行为，并一直在打击这一做法。而且最近，该公司表示这一努力已经取得成效。这带来了一个不寻常的问题：Anthropic在保护其技术方面的成功可能正在损害其报告的收入增长。这也引发了一个问题：即公司今年早些时候的部分惊人增长是否是由于竞争对手付费复制其模型而被人为提升的。
All these "distillation" accounts and questions generate revenue for Anthropic, even though the customers are effectively trying to copy its technology. Anthropic has repeatedly accused Chinese AI companies of doing this and has been cracking down on the practice. And lately, the company has said this effort has been successful. That creates an unusual problem: Anthropic's success in protecting its technology could be hurting its reported revenue growth. It also raises questions about whether some of the company's spectacular growth earlier this year was artificially boosted by rivals paying to copy its models.
目前尚不清楚最近的放缓有多少可以归因于这一打击行动。事实上，该公司本周告诉投资者，据《The Information》报道，蒸馏带来的收入预计将进一步下降。科技行业曾有类似先例。当Twitter上市时，投资者密切关注其用户增长。
It's unclear how much of the recent slowdown can be attributed to the crackdown. Indeed, the company told investors this week that revenue from distillation is expected to decline further, according to The Information. There's a precedent for this in the tech industry. When Twitter went public, investors closely watched its user growth.
一些账户是机器人而非真实人物，这使得投资者用来判断公司健康状况的数字变得复杂。Twitter 在其监管文件中披露了虚假和自动化账户的估计，为投资者提供了更多信息以评估其增长。结果是用户增长数字下降。Anthropic 在准备进行可能使公司估值达到1.5万亿美元或更高的IPO时，可能面临类似挑战。重要的区别是，蒸馏相关收入的下降并不一定意味着 Anthropic 的基础业务正在减弱。
Some accounts were bots rather than actual people, complicating the numbers investors used to judge the company's health. Twitter disclosed estimates of fake and automated accounts in its regulatory filings, giving investors more information to assess its growth. The result was that user growth numbers came down. Anthropic could face a similar challenge as it prepares for an IPO that could value the company at $1.5 trillion or more. The important distinction is that a decline in distillation-related revenue doesn't necessarily mean Anthropic's underlying business is weakening.
这可能仅仅意味着更少的竞争对手在付费以利用其技术。当然，竞争和其他因素也可能在放缓增长。但投资者需要将真实的客户需求与试图复制 Anthropic AI 的公司所产生的收入区分开来。有时失去客户也不是件坏事。我周三曾就此向 Anthropic 提问，但截至周四早上仍未收到回复。
It could simply mean fewer rivals are paying to exploit its technology. Of course, competition and other factors could also be slowing growth. But investors will need to separate genuine customer demand from revenue generated by companies trying to copy Anthropic's AI. Sometimes losing customers isn't such a bad thing. I asked Anthropic about this on Wednesday and didn't hear back by Thursday morning. here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com