Ruthless exclusive: Pentagon CTO reveals reasoning for Anthropic removal
In an exclusive interview with the "Ruthless Podcast," Emil Michael, the under secretary of war for research and engineering and Department of War chief technology officer, explained why Anthropic was removed from the Pentagon."I got the [artificial intelligence (AI)] portfolio," Michael said in an interview released Thursday morning."Six months into the job, I read the [Anthropic] contract.
‘You can't use AI for battlefield management.’ I was like, ‘What does that mean?’ 'You can't use AI to defend yourself from a missile attack.' What?’"This spring, the Pentagon froze its relationship with the AI company while signing new contracts with competitors SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. SEN RON JOHNSON DETAILS SENATE FILIBUSTER STRATEGY ON ‘RUTHLESS'The Pentagon building in Arlington, Va., on Oct.22, 2025.
(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)The Pentagon’s move is currently being litigated in federal court.Anthropic has publicly argued against the Department of War’s authorization policy to use the technology for "all lawful purposes."In the interview, Michael blamed the Biden administration for its handling of the previous contract. "[This contract was from] the Biden administration," Michael, who previously served as chief business officer at Uber, quipped.
"Maybe someone didn't read it."CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW THE RUTHLESS PODCASTAccording to Michael, through its computer regulations, the Biden White House selected Anthropic as the "chosen AI company."Later in the interview, Michael gave a behind-the-scenes look at the high-stakes meeting with the makers of the popular Claude product.He said he wanted to change the scope of the agreement. "So I called [Anthropic] in, and I was like, OK, you guys, you know, got to change this," Michael told the Fellas.
"We’ll use it lawfully, for all lawful purposes, but it's artificial general intelligence.You don’t get to tell me where I could fly ...