The Pentagon's AI ambitions just got a Silicon Valley upgrade. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is assembling what insiders are calling an "AI bro squad" - a team of tech executives and private equity heavyweights tasked with supercharging military AI adoption. Leading the charge is Emil Michael, the former Uber COO turned Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, who's now spearheading partnerships with AI labs including Anthropic. The move signals Washington's most aggressive push yet to bring cutting-edge commercial AI into defense operations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth isn't wasting time. According to The Verge, he's tapped Emil Michael - the executive who helped scale Uber from startup to global powerhouse - to lead the Pentagon's AI transformation as Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Photos from July 2025 show the two walking through exhibits of Multi-Domain Autonomous systems at the Pentagon, a visible signal that military AI is no longer a future concept but a present-day priority.
Michael's appointment represents a stark departure from traditional defense bureaucracy. During his tenure at Uber, he was known for aggressive expansion tactics and a willingness to break regulatory norms - traits that made him controversial in Silicon Valley but exactly the kind of operator Hegseth appears to want. Now he's applying that same velocity to military AI, working to establish partnerships with leading AI companies including Anthropic, the startup behind the Claude language model.
The Anthropic partnership is particularly noteworthy. While competitors like OpenAI have faced internal debates about defense contracts, Anthropic has quietly positioned itself as the enterprise AI provider willing to work with government. The company's focus on AI safety and "constitutional AI" principles may actually make it more palatable to defense officials concerned about deploying unpredictable systems in military contexts. Michael's team is reportedly exploring how Claude could be used for intelligence analysis, logistics optimization, and strategic planning.
