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Emil Michael

Emil Michael

Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Pentagon Chief Technology Officer)

Appears in 2 stories

Notable Quotes

"I believe and hope that they will 'cross the Rubicon' and say, 'This is common sense.'" — Microelectronics Commons summit, February 2026

"What we're not going to do is let any one company dictate a new set of policies above and beyond what Congress has passed." — February 2026

"What we've learned from the Ukraine-Russia war is that the front lines of a conflict over territory are robot-on-robot now." — Reagan National Defense Forum, 2025

Stories

Pentagon threatens to blacklist Anthropic over military AI safeguards

Rule Changes

Leading technical negotiations with AI companies

Anthropic's Claude became the first commercial AI model deployed on classified U.S. military networks in late 2024. Over sixteen months later, the Department of Defense formally designated Anthropic a "supply chain risk"—a label historically reserved for foreign adversaries—after the company refused to permit Claude's use for mass surveillance of Americans or fully autonomous weapons. The unprecedented action followed failed negotiations and President Trump's directive to cease federal use of Anthropic tech, forcing contractors to cut ties.

Updated Mar 10

America's race to mass-produce combat drones

New Capabilities

Leading technical implementation of drone programs

The Pentagon spent $398 million on small drones in 2022. Four years later, as Ukraine demonstrated that $400 drones could destroy $10 million tanks, Congress authorized $1.7 billion—a fourfold increase. Now the Department of Defense has launched its most ambitious small-drone initiative ever: a $1.1 billion program to field more than 300,000 one-way attack drones by 2028, with the first 30,000 expected by mid-2026.

Updated Feb 4