Ruthless exclusive: Pentagon CTO reveals reasoning for Anthropic removal

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Emil Michael, the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering and Department of War Chief Technology Officer, explains why Anthropic was removed from the Pentagon. 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, NVID