Pentagon CTO Dismisses AI 'Doomsday' Fears as Fear of Change

Emil Michael, the U.S. Defense Department's Chief Technology Officer and Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, publicly pushed back against doomsday scenarios about AI at a defense industry conference in Washington on September 10, 2026, saying such fears stem from a fear of change.

Michael referenced a viral post by former Anthropic engineer Jacob Coxon, which claimed that AI insiders believe the technology "could wipe out humanity before the end of this decade." The post has drawn more than 150 million views. Michael said people tend to fall into doomsday thinking, such as worries that "40% of Americans will lose their jobs" or that AI will destroy humanity, but he attributed these concerns to fear of data centers and change. He argued that the potential harms Coxon described could be mitigated through free-market mechanisms, industry-wide collaboration, and communication with the government.

The same day, Michael also addressed the ongoing legal dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic, Coxon's former employer. The disagreement centers on limits for AI use, including Anthropic's demand that the U.S. military not deploy its models for mass surveillance of Americans or fully autonomous lethal weapons. Negotiations collapsed earlier in 2026, and the Defense Department designated Anthropic as a supply chain threat. The case is now before federal courts. A California district court ruled in Anthropic's favor on August 27, but an appeals court in Washington has yet to decide. Michael insisted that until the Washington case is resolved, Anthropic remains a supply chain risk under the department's designation.