Trump team plans firings of probationary workers at NIST, key agency for AI

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a lab housed under the Commerce Department, is preparing to fire as many as roughly 500 probationary staffers as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts to the federal government.

Some probationary employees at the agency received verbal notices about upcoming terminations on Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private information. A final decision on the scope of the terminations has not yet been made, some of the people said.