# Pentagon AI use grew from 80,000 to 1.7 million

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/pentagon-ai-use-grew-from-80-000-to-1-7-million/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Emil Michael](https://realalpha.app/people/emil-michael/)
- Host: [Akash Pasricha](https://realalpha.app/people/akash-pasricha/) · Host, TITV · Led The Information's Pro subscription and co-wrote its flagship newsletter, The Briefing.
- Show: The Information's TITV
- Episode: [The Pentagon’s CTO Explains the Anthropic Rift and Superintelligence Task Force](https://realalpha.app/v/1hXxzkU77iI/), Oct 16, 2026
- Moment: 47:58 to 51:22 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/pentagon-ai-use-grew-from-80-000-to-1-7-million/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/1hXxzkU77iI/?t=2878

## Quote

> “A year ago today, we had 80,000 people out of 3.5 million Department of War employees using AI. And today we're **about 1.7 million**.”
> — [Emil Michael](https://realalpha.app/people/emil-michael/) at [50:25](https://realalpha.app/v/1hXxzkU77iI/?t=3025) · The Information's TITV

## Takeaways

1. A year earlier, 80,000 of 3.5 million employees used AI.
2. Adoption grew to about 1.7 million employees.
3. Uses range from intelligence synthesis to warfighting systems.

## About this segment

Emil Michael says department adoption rose to about 1.7 million employees from 80,000 in a year. He cites office productivity, intelligence synthesis and AI embedded in warfighting systems.

From “The Pentagon’s CTO Explains the Anthropic Rift and Superintelligence Task Force”, Oct 16, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/1hXxzkU77iI/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[48:02](https://realalpha.app/v/1hXxzkU77iI/?t=2882) And you've also talked about the potential for Chinese operatives and other potential adversaries to really kind of poison the training data for AI. And so just given all these threats and given your responsibility to infuse the Department of War with this technology, this type of technology, how can you do that given those kind of concerns, especially if models may already be compromised? Well, I was saying that that's what the model companies themselves say about their products.

[48:40](https://realalpha.app/v/1hXxzkU77iI/?t=2920) And I think, you know, it is certainly true that there are cyber capabilities that have some risk if someone's going to use them offensively. I think that we can sort of all agree on. And then we're also then, therefore, in the midst of a cyber hardening. exercise where not only Department of War, but government and businesses are going back on their old code and their old systems and making sure there's no vulnerabilities and so on.

[49:10](https://realalpha.app/v/1hXxzkU77iI/?t=2950) But that's what they say about them. But a lot of what they've said has been proven wrong or is likely to be proven wrong. So part of the other reason for this SIF force, if you will, this SIF, is to make sure that the good news story is told about what AI can do. because I think it's been a lot of doom and gloom. If you look at the public surveys about how Americans feel about superintelligence relative to any other country in the world, we're the most doom and gloom out there, yet we're the center of the world on that point, right?

[49:44](https://realalpha.app/v/1hXxzkU77iI/?t=2984) And obviously there's some narrative here that I think has affected people. But how do I proliferate this in the Department of War and do it safely? I mean, we do a lot of testing. We do our own like just, you know, there are several parts of the government, including at the Department of War, where we rate models based on their capabilities. So we know what they are, you know, oftentimes ahead of time before they're launched, which gives us insight into what their capabilities are.

[50:14](https://realalpha.app/v/1hXxzkU77iI/?t=3014) And I think that's good. I think the American people want that, right? They want to make sure that their national security enterprise understands what kind of products might be out there that could have some risk in them. So, but I will tell you that it's been successful so far. A year ago today, we had 80,000 people out of 3.5 million Department of War employees using AI. And today we're about 1.7 million.

[50:39](https://realalpha.app/v/1hXxzkU77iI/?t=3039) So, and it's just for basic use cases, right? So, it's making a difference at the enterprise level, like making people more efficient, like you would understand as a writer and a journalist. It's making people more efficient in the intelligence community because you could synthesize more data more quickly. And at the warfighting level, it's baked into a lot of our systems. And again, people assume, you know, they don't understand that warfare is a lot of forms and paperwork and permission and all these kinds of things.

[51:08](https://realalpha.app/v/1hXxzkU77iI/?t=3068) Let's simplify the back end of that so that people could focus on the battle at hand. Well, you know, speaking, we'll talk more for sure about AI and warfare in a sec, hopefully.