Radical layoffs architectural by the Trump administration and the so-called Ministry of Government efficiency could arrive this week at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a non-regulatory agency responsible for establishing the establishment of benchmarks that have guaranteed everything for beauty products Quantum computers are safe and reliable.
According to several current and former employees of NIST, the agency is preparing for cuts since President Donald Trump took office last month and ordered billionaire Elon Musk and Doge to reduce spending across the federal government. The fears were increased last week when some NIST workers saw a handful of people they believed associated with DOGE inside building 225, which houses the NIST information technology laboratory at the Gaithersburg of the ‘Agency, in the Maryland campus, according to several people informed of observations. DOGE staff were looking for access to IT systems in NIST, said one of the people.
Shortly after the alleged visit, Nist’s management told employees that Doge’s staff were not currently on campus, but that the office space and technology were provisional for them, according to the same people.
Wednesday, Axios And Bloomberg reported that Nist had started to inform certain employees that they could soon be laid off. According to reports, around 500 recent hires which are still in probation status and can be released among people who should be affected. Three sources indicate to Wired that cuts probably have an impact on technical experts in management positions, including three laboratory directors who have been promoted in the past year. A person familiar with the agency told Wired that official dismissal notices could arrive on Friday.
The White House and a spokesperson for Nist, who is part of the Ministry of Commerce, has not yet returned any comments.
A NIST team that feared discounts due to its number of probationary employees is the American IA security institute (AISI), which was created after the former executive decree of former president Joe Biden on AI issued in October 2023. Trump. canceled Order shortly after taking office last month, describing it as an “obstacle to American leadership in artificial intelligence”.
The Safety Institute and its approximately two dozen staff worked in close collaboration with AI companies, including rivals from the Musk startup, such as Openai and Anthropic, to understand and test the capacities of their most powerful models. Musk was a first investor in Openai and is currently continuing the startup about his decision to move from a non -profit organization to a for -profit company.
The inaugural director of AISI, Elizabeth Kelly, announcement She left her role earlier this month. Several other high -level managers working on AI have also left in recent weeks, notably Reva Schwartz, who has directed the risk of evaluation and the impacts of AI, and Elham Tabassi, the chief advisor of the ‘Ia de nist. Kelly and Schwartz refused to comment. Tabassi did not respond to a request for comments.
The American vice-president, JD Vance, recently pointed out the intention of the new administration to pray to the security of the AI at the top of AI action, a large international meeting held in Paris last week that ‘AISI and other government employees were not guest To attend, according to three families with the question. “I’m not here this morning to talk about AI security,” said Vance during his first major speech as vice-president. “I am here to talk about the opportunity of AI.”
