What the government shutdown means for tech

Here's what we're watching:

The White House's AI plans have some looming deadlines.

• Comments to the Office of Science and Technology Policy on federal regulations that hold back the development and deployment of AI are due later this month.
• The Commerce Department — in consultation with the State Department and OSTP — needs to establish and implement a program to promote AI export packages by Oct. 21, per one of President Trump's AI executive orders.
• OSTP has not come out with a contingency plan, but a spokesperson said the office is "continuing to execute" on the president's AI action plan.

The Commerce Department's contingency plan states that most research work will stop at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

• "Certain activities of the NIST Center for AI Standards and Innovation that are funded through means other than annual appropriations may continue," the plan says.
• Offices focused on semiconductors will continue during the lapse by using CHIPS and Science Act funding, which is aimed at boosting domestic chip manufacturing, but many employees from the AI standards center and the CHIPS office were let go earlier this year.
• The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, which is meant to expand internet service to rural and underserved areas, will also continue.

Yes, but: While on paper BEAD and CHIPS Act operations are continuing, both Biden-era programs have been attacked by President Trump and were on shaky ground even before the shutdown.

The Federal Trade Commission is furloughing everyone except the last standing Republican commissioners and a few essential staff.

• Hearing and filing deadlines for major antitrust cases like the one against Amazon could be delayed.

The National Science Foundation is furloughing most of its staff and will stop issuing any new grants.

The Federal Communications Commission is also sending most of its employees home and ceasing work around consumer complaints and spectrum management.

The Small Business Administration's seed fund and programs to help small businesses develop and commercialize technology also lapsed.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' suspension of operations means economic data, including a tech jobs report, will not be released.

• "Recent changes in the workforce have raised red flags about AI's impact on job opportunities, and functional national statistical agencies are critical to monitoring that impact and shaping our nation's response," Brad Carson, the president of nonprofit Americans for Responsible Innovation, wrote in a letter to administration officials shared first with Axios.

What's next: Many employees who keep the government's programs running are now furloughed, pausing major research efforts and making key tech deadlines tough to meet.