Emil Michael is the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)), the Pentagon's chief technology officer. The Senate confirmed him on May 14, 2025 by a 54–43 vote, and he was sworn in on May 20, 2025; following the department's secondary redesignation, his office is also styled Under Secretary of War (Research and Engineering) (Source: defensescoop.com; Source: cto.mil; Source: war.gov).
Background
Michael was chief business officer at Uber from 2013 to 2017, where his official Defense Department biography credits him with creating global partnerships and driving over $20 billion in capital-raising initiatives (Source: war.gov). He was nominated for the USD(R&E) post in December 2024 and confirmed in May 2025 (Source: breakingdefense.com). As USD(R&E) he serves as the Defense Department's point person on advancing technology, including its AI portfolio; Sen. Elizabeth Warren, ahead of his confirmation, sought ethics commitments given the role's authority as the department's chief technology officer (Source: warren.senate.gov).
Role in Pentagon AI organization
In August 2025, a memo by Deputy Secretary Stephen Feinberg moved the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) under USD(R&E), placing the Pentagon's central AI office in Michael's reporting line — a change the Congressional Research Service characterized as an effective demotion of CDAO (see Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO)).
Dispute with Anthropic
Michael was the principal Defense Department counterparty in the 2026 dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon over safety guardrails on military AI use. Court documents released July 2, 2026 in one of Anthropic's lawsuits against the Pentagon (Anthropic v. United States (Pentagon ban challenge)) revealed months of correspondence between Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Michael over guardrails for the Pentagon's use of AI, with tensions persisting even as Anthropic resolved its separate export-control dispute with the administration on June 30, 2026 (Source: wsj.com).
Relationships
- related: Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) — CDAO reports under USD(R&E) following the August 2025 realignment.
- related: DOD — Department of Defense (AI Deployer) — serves as the department's chief technology officer.
- related: Anthropic v. United States (Pentagon ban challenge) — named counterparty in the released Amodei correspondence.
- related: Anthropic — counterparty in the 2026 safety-guardrail dispute.