It's interesting. Until quite recently image models felt like toys, and Anthropic opting out seemed like a good decision to me. I feel like the "trained on stolen data" thing feels a lot more real with image models, since they so clearly compete with the artists whose work was used - so it felt aligned with Anthropic's image as the "more ethical" of the labs.

But then Nano Banana happened, and ChatGPT Images 2.0, and now image models aren't a toy any more - you can get real, useful work done with them.

Which is a problem for Anthropic, because companies that are buying a suite of AI tools for their employees may well value the ability to create usable posters, leaflets, and most importantly presentation slides.

Anthropic don't have anything to offer there, where Google and OpenAI have two of the best models anywhere.