Pentagon Turns to Ex-Uber Executive in Anthropic Feud Over AI

Emil Michael made his name in Silicon Valley a decade ago as an aggressive dealmaker for a startup — Uber Technologies Inc. — as it wrangled with governments in pursuit of market domination. Now, Michael has switched sides in a battle involving a different startup — this time taking a leading role in the Pentagon’s dispute with artificial intelligence pioneer Anthropic PBC.

As US Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Michael has been negotiating with Anthropic and its chief executive officer, Dario Amodei, over how the defense department can use its AI models. The discussions, centered on Anthropic’s aim to keep its ...