Rumman Chowdhury, a renowned data scientist, nonprofit founder, and former director of Twitter’s machine ethics team, expressed strong concerns about Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during a panel discussion at SXSW on Thursday. Chowdhury’s comments came in response to the recent actions of Musk and DOGE, which have been advising on staff cuts across U.S. federal agencies.

Chowdhury emphasized the challenges faced by employees when their funding is uncertain and they are under pressure to perform despite the unpredictable behavior of their leader. “When your funding is frozen and you don’t know if you’re going to be fired, and there’s this absolutely unhinged person saying weird things on the internet constantly, you still have to do your job, right?” Chowdhury stated. “The lights have to be kept on because Elon Musk is not the one keeping the lights on, even though he would like you to think that.”

Musk and DOGE have been implementing rapid staff reductions across various federal agencies, which has raised concerns about compromised cybersecurity. The initiative has significantly impacted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reduced headcount at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and led to the firing of probationary employees at the Federal Aviation Administration, among other agencies. Chowdhury fears that these drastic reductions and chaotic management style will result in a brain drain, similar to what she experienced at Twitter in 2022 after Musk acquired the platform for $43 billion.

Chowdhury reflected on her time at Twitter, where she witnessed a significant exodus of employees before and after Musk’s takeover. “Some estimates say about 20% of the company had already left before he even took over, and then he fired another 30% on top of that,” Chowdhury recalled. “So, we’re talking about a big chunk of the company being just gone, whether by choice or not, but I think the most important thing was that the looming shadow of his existence completely killed the culture of Twitter.”

Chowdhury expressed her concern about the impact of Musk’s management style on the U.S. government, an institution that plays a vital role in the lives of Americans and people beyond the country’s borders. “It’s scary to see that happening to the U.S. government… Musk breeds chaotic environments, and chaos is not where good work happens,” Chowdhury said. She also criticized Musk’s vision for Twitter, now rebranded as X, which she believes has become a propaganda tool for his ideology, serving as a “megaphone” to disseminate his perspective to the world.

Chowdhury drew a contrast between Musk’s behavior and that of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, stating that Dorsey did not use the platform to push his opinions or amplify certain voices over others. “I don’t think there’s any debate or discussion to be had here,” Chowdhury said. “I don’t think Jack Dorsey acted anywhere near the way Elon Musk has – he was not on Twitter every day with his opinions, blocking people, amplifying others, calling some people terrorists – like, Jack did not act that way.”

According to a recent report, Musk has shared misleading claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential election on X, which were viewed nearly 1.2 billion times without any fact-checking. Additionally, Musk has made false assertions about federal spending, Ukrainian aggression, and the role of agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These actions have raised concerns about the spread of misinformation on X.

Musk has even questioned the credibility of X’s own fact-checking system, Community Notes, after it corrected posts that claimed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the elected president of Ukraine, had low approval ratings among citizens. “Unfortunately, Community Notes is increasingly being gamed by governments and legacy media,” Musk claimed without evidence in a post. This incident has further eroded trust in Musk’s ability to manage a platform like X, which has become a significant source of information for many users.