【Watch Educating Elainia (2006)】

Source：Wisdom Convergence Information Network Editor：Social Good Time：2025-06-26 15:39:53

Steve Mnuchin,Watch Educating Elainia (2006) for one, welcomes our new robot overlords.

The treasury secretary said during an interview with Axios on Friday that he was "optimistic" rather than anxious about the effects advances in automation might have on the workforce.

"I'm not worried," Mnuchin told the site. "Quite frankly, I'm optimistic -- that's what increases productivity."

SEE ALSO: Robots taking our jobs? Tax them, says Bill Gates

("I'm not worried" seems to be a common refrain for Mnuchin, who repeated the phrase at least three times throughout the 40-minute interview.)

Mnuchin also seems blissfully ignorant of the timeframe in which most experts expect artificial intelligence to begin doing low-level jobs.

"It's not even on our radar screen," he said. "It's 50-100 more years" away.

The comments come hours after accounting firm PwC released a report that found that nearly four in ten American jobs could be lost to automation in the next 15 years.

That number is by no means universally agreed upon, though. Other studies have pegged it at as low as nine percent, and a report from McKinsey Global Institute suggested that the change would happen over a much longer period than most experts are predicting.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Still, Mnuchin's sanguine outlook on the situation doesn't jibe with any of these reports, and his ignorance of the major near-term impact is somewhat ridiculous, given the numbers.

"We're never really good at predicting what the next problem is," he said when asked about potential global economic problems.

Speak for yourself, Twitter said in response.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

One part of the labor market expected to be hit the hardest by automation within the next decade is the American trucking industry.

There are 3.5 million truck drivers in the United States -- it's the most common job in more than half of all states. And startups like Uber-owned Otto are already testing driverless big rigs.

This topic doesn't seem to have been raised on Thursday when the president spent part of his day playing around in a truck cab while meeting with the industry's leaders.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Trump's original pick for labor secretary, CKE Restaurants CEO Andrew Puzder, openly advocated for automating low-income jobs. It's unclear where his replacement, Alexander Acosta, stands on the issue.

At least one member of the Trump administration seems aware of this impending cliff, though.

Transportation secretary Elaine Chao paid lip service to the impact of driverless technology would have on the labor market last month.

“As a former secretary of Labor, I am very, very concerned about that and very cognizant of those challenges," she said, according to Politico. "So we do have to transition people and we need to keep that in mind."

Featured Video For You

These self-driving buses could make owning a car totally pointless

Topics Artificial Intelligence Donald Trump Politics

Previous：One of Android's Easter Eggs is a Flappy Bird

Next：Researchers map the koala genome in the name of saving the species

【Watch Educating Elainia (2006)】

Related Articles

Related Recommendations

Categories

Latest Articles

Popular Articles

Hot Recommendations

Featured Column

Quick Links

Quick Links