Donald Trump’s administration laid off 170 employees at the National Science Foundation in February as part of a government-wide staff reduction. Critics say the cuts, which included artificial intelligence specialists, could hurt American competitiveness in AI research. While the agency said Monday it will reinstate 84 workers following a court ruling on March 3, experts warn the cuts, combined with looming government-wide staff reductions, could severely hamper the agency.
The NSF has historically helped America’s tech leadership, funding research that led to Google’s PageRank algorithm for its search engine and the underlying technology behind AI chatbots. These cuts come as the government is reportedly planning to terminate up to 500 probationary employees at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which oversees the US AI Safety Institute.
Meta’s Yann LeCun, the company’s chief AI scientist, wrote on LinkedIn that the US “seems set on destroying its public research funding system.”