Policy Market: Pentagon CTO Rejects Government Stakes in AI, Questions Regulation

In an interview with CNBC's 'Squawk on the Street,' Emil Michael, the Pentagon's Chief Technology Officer, expressed opposition to the U.S. government taking equity stakes in artificial intelligence companies, stating 'We don't want government to get in the middle.' He also questioned the need for additional AI regulation, contrasting pre-regulation approaches like Europe's with a model of holding companies responsible for safe products. Michael acknowledged concerns about the hacking of Hugging Face but doubted regulation would prevent such incidents. He echoed President Trump's view of a 'coordinated campaign' to scare people about AI risks, and suggested companies could voluntarily pause development of certain technologies. The remarks come amid calls from AI leaders like Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei to slow AI development.