Glossary term

Distillation

Also: model distillation, knowledge distillation

Glossary informational Last reviewed Updated

Distillation is the practice of using a stronger model's outputs to train or extract a weaker model, and it is one of the risk domains covered by Fable 5's safety classifiers.

Why it's a flagged domain

Because distillation can copy capability out of a high-end model, it is treated as a sensitive activity for Covered Models. Fable 5 includes a classifier aimed at detecting requests that look like attempts to extract or replicate the model's behavior.

Relation to the reroute

A request flagged under the distillation classifier is subject to Fable 5's classifier fallback — rerouted to Claude Opus 4.8 with the user informed.

Sources & further reading

Facts on this page link to their source. Quotes are kept under 15 words and attributed; figures labelled unofficial are third-party until Anthropic publishes system-card numbers.