内容来源：https://www.wired.com/story/black-forest-labs-ai-image-generation/

内容总结：

在旧金山莫斯康中心举办的HumanX大会上，硅谷仿佛站在人工智能宇宙的中心——OpenAI、Anthropic等巨头的总部近在咫尺，科技领袖云集于此。然而，一家来自5000英里外德国黑森林地区、仅70人的初创公司，却悄然成为AI图像生成领域的顶尖竞争者。

这家名为黑森林实验室（Black Forest Labs）的公司，去年12月以32.5亿美元估值完成融资，其技术已为Adobe、Canva等平台的AI图像生成功能提供支持，并与微软、Meta、xAI等巨头达成合作。尽管2024年曾为马斯克的xAI旗下Grok提供图像生成技术引发争议，该公司近期已拒绝xAI再次合作请求，主因是对方“运营环境过于混乱”。

今年9月，黑森林实验室与Meta达成1.4亿美元多年合作协议。第三方评测显示，其图像生成质量仅次于OpenAI和谷歌，在Hugging Face平台下载量也位居前列。更引人注目的是，这家资源远少于竞争对手的公司，凭借“潜在扩散”技术实现了高效研发——该技术先勾勒图像草图，再逐步细化细节。

联合创始人安德烈亚斯·布拉特曼表示：“我们的模型仅用竞争对手百分之一的资源就实现了强大性能。”但他强调，图像生成只是起点。公司计划今年推出搭载其AI模型的机器人，并正与多家硬件厂商洽谈，为智能眼镜等设备提供技术支持。

公司团队选择将总部设在德国弗赖堡而非硅谷，布拉特曼认为这恰是成功关键：“远离喧嚣让我们更专注。在旧金山时总被各种事务分散精力。”这种专注力或许正是当下AI行业稀缺的特质——就连OpenAI近期也裁撤了视频生成项目Sora以聚焦核心业务。

随着黑森林实验室向物理AI领域拓展，这家从黑森林走向世界的公司，正用其独特的专注力书写AI竞赛的另一种可能。

中文翻译：

置身于旧金山莫斯康中心举办的HumanX大会现场，很难不产生身处人工智能宇宙中心的错觉。科技领袖们在这栋建筑里穿梭不息，OpenAI与Anthropic的总部仅隔数个街区。然而，一家远在五千英里外、坐落于德国黑森林地区（以火腿闻名）的70人初创公司，竟已成为硅谷顶尖实验室在AI图像生成领域的主要竞争者。

去年12月，黑森林实验室在与Adobe及平面设计平台Canva达成AI图像生成功能合作协议后，以32.5亿美元估值完成融资。该公司甚至与微软、Meta、xAI等头部AI实验室签署协议，为其产品提供同类技术支持。

成立近两年，黑森林实验室已具备挑选合作伙伴的底气。2024年，埃隆·马斯克的xAI曾采用其技术驱动Grok的首个图像生成器。这项合作虽令黑森林实验室声名鹊起，却因聊天机器人安全防护薄弱引发巨大争议，数月后随着xAI自主开发图像模型而终止。

据知情人士向《连线》透露，近月来xAI再度接洽黑森林实验室寻求技术授权，但这次遭到拒绝。黑森林实验室认为与以混乱工作环境著称的xAI合作运营难度过高。xAI未立即回应《连线》的置评请求。

今年9月，黑森林实验室与Meta达成1.4亿美元多年期协议，为其提供AI图像生成技术。

这些AI实验室之所以寻求合作，源于黑森林实验室的图像生成器位居全球顶尖水平——在第三方机构Artificial Analysis的评测中仅次于OpenAI和谷歌。该公司在Hugging Face平台提供的文生图模型下载量亦名列前茅，表明市场上大量AI图像工具可能正采用其免费版技术。

更令人瞩目的是，该公司长期以远少于竞争对手的资源实现突破。这促使他们专注于名为"潜在扩散"的高效技术路线：AI模型先勾勒图像大致轮廓，再逐步细化填充细节。

联合创始人安德烈亚斯·布拉特曼本周在HumanX大会现场接受《连线》采访时表示："潜在扩散技术让我们能用比竞争对手少几个数量级的资源，打造出性能强大的模型。"

尽管成绩斐然，黑森林实验室坚信图像生成仅是起点。布拉特曼透露公司计划在今年晚些时候推出搭载其AI模型的机器人（未透露硬件合作方），这标志着他们正把握更宏大的机遇——构建能在物理世界感知并行动的AI系统。

"视觉智能远不止内容创作，这只是通向完整技术体系的起点。"布拉特曼强调，"我个人最期待的是物理AI，这也是本次大会的核心议题。"

据消息人士称，黑森林实验室正与多家硬件厂商洽谈，为智能眼镜、机器人等产品提供技术支持。

黑森林深处的创新

布拉特曼与联合创始人罗宾·龙巴赫、帕特里克·埃瑟因2021年发表突破性AI图像模型研究崭露头角。2022年受聘于Stability AI期间，他们基于前期成果开发出开源AI图像生成器Stable Diffusion。两年后三人宣布离职，共同创立黑森林实验室。

团队未迁往旧金山，而是将总部设在故乡德国弗赖堡附近。布拉特曼认为这个决定是成功的关键："远离聚集地可能成为巨大优势。每位创业者都明白，专注力才是决定成败的核心。旧金山虽充满魅力，但纷繁的信息洪流让人难以聚焦。"

近年来多家美国AI实验室确实面临专注力挑战。最典型的例子当属OpenAI——为聚焦核心业务近期关停了AI视频生成应用Sora（尽管几周后收购了热门科技访谈节目TBPN）。黑森林实验室至今仍是纪律最严明的AI实验室之一，但随着向物理AI领域扩张，这家公司的专注力或将面临考验。

英文来源：

Standing inside the HumanX conference in San Francisco’s Moscone Center, it’s hard not to feel like you’re at the center of the AI universe. Technology leaders swarm the building, and the headquarters of OpenAI and Anthropic are just down the block. But a 70-person startup headquartered 5,000 miles away in Germany’s Black Forest—a region famous for its ham—has become a top competitor to Silicon Valley’s leading labs in AI image generation.
In December, Black Forest Labs raised funds at a $3.25 billion valuation, after signing deals to power AI image-generation features in Adobe and the graphic design platform Canva. It has even struck agreements with major AI labs like Microsoft, Meta, and xAI to power similar features in their products.
Nearly two years after launch, Black Forest Labs can afford to be picky about who it works with. In 2024, Elon Musk’s xAI tapped Black Forest Labs to power Grok’s first image generator. That partnership put Black Forest Labs on the map but generated a lot of controversy due to the chatbot’s limited safeguards. It ended months later when xAI developed an in-house AI image model.
In recent months, xAI approached Black Forest Labs about licensing the startup's technology again, sources familiar with the matter tell WIRED. This time around, Black Forest Labs declined, the sources said, deeming it too operationally difficult to partner with xAI, which has a famously chaotic work environment. xAI did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
In September, Black Forest Labs struck a $140 million multiyear deal to give Meta access to its AI image-generation technology.
These AI labs want to work with Black Forest Labs because its image generators are among the world's best, ranking just below OpenAI and Google's offerings on the third-party firm Artificial Analysis' benchmarks. The startup also offers some of the most downloaded text-to-image models on Hugging Face, indicating that a lot of AI image tools on the market are likely powered by a free version of Black Forest Labs’ technology.
It’s particularly impressive since the company has historically had far fewer resources than its competitors. This has led it to a more efficient line of research called latent diffusion, which is essentially when an AI model first sketches out a rough blueprint of an image, and then paints in more detail.
Latent diffusion “enabled us to put out very powerful models that took orders of magnitude less resources than our competitor’s models,” said cofounder Andreas Blattmann in an interview with WIRED onstage at HumanX this week.
Despite its success, Black Forest Labs believes image generation is just the beginning. Blattmann said the startup plans to unveil a robot powered by one of its AI models later this year. (He did not reveal what company is making the hardware.) The push is part of a larger opportunity the company sees to build AI that can perceive and take actions in the physical world.
“Visual intelligence is so much more than content creation. Content creation is just the first segue into this entire technology,” said Blattmann. “What I’m personally super excited about—and that’s a pattern throughout this conference—is physical AI.”
Black Forest Labs is also in talks with a handful of hardware companies, to power features in products like smart glasses and robots, sources tell WIRED.
Building in the Black Forest
Blattmann and his cofounders, Robin Rombach and Patrick Esser, made a name for themselves publishing some groundbreaking research on AI image models in 2021. In 2022, they were hired by Stability AI and released Stable Diffusion, a popular open source AI image generator based on their prior research. But two years later, they announced their departure and launched Black Forest Labs.
Rather than move to San Francisco, the trio decided to maintain a headquarters near their hometowns in Freiburg, Germany. Blattmann said the decision has been key to the company’s success.
“It can be a huge asset to not be where everyone else is,” he added. “Everyone who has ever run a startup knows that it’s a lot about the ability to focus and work on what matters. Whenever I’m here in SF I love it, but it’s also very hard to focus because there’s so much stuff going on.”
It’s clear that several American AI labs have struggled with focus in recent years. The most top-of-mind example is OpenAI, which recently killed off its AI video generation app Sora to prioritize core business efforts. (It then bought the popular tech talk show TBPN a few weeks later, though.) Black Forest Labs has been one of the more disciplined AI labs thus far, but as it expands into physical AI, the company’s focus might be tested.