Emil Michael: Iran, Anthropic and the Future of AI at the Pentagon

March 14, 2026

Here's something that caught my attention — Emil Michael, undersecretary of defense, shared how he streamlined the Pentagon’s tech focus, making applied AI a top priority. According to Emil, he inherited a department with 14 vague tech goals. So, he cut them down to six — and AI was front and center. Now, here's where it gets interesting: Emil points out that previous commercial AI contracts created a vendor-lock crisis, risking active military operations. That’s a big deal, especially when you realize how fragile the whole system can be if contracts aren’t aligned with real-world needs. As Emil and David Ulevitch from a16z discuss, fixing this requires smart policy shifts and better collaboration with AI vendors, not just throwing money at the problem. The key takeaway? The Pentagon’s future depends on smarter, more flexible AI contracts — and that’s what everyone should be watching. Content+a16zpodcast@a16z.com highlights how innovation in defense tech isn’t just about new gadgets, but also about fixing old, risky ways of working.

This conversation with Emil Michael, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and acting director of the Defense Innovation Unit, was recorded at the a16z American Dynamism Summit in Washington, D.C. Michael walks through how he inherited a department running 14 undefined technology priorities, cut them to six, and made applied AI number one. He also gives the first detailed account of why commercial AI contracts written under the previous administration created a vendor-lock crisis that put active military operations at risk.

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