AI Killing Jobs: Tech Community Shocked By Trump Treasury Secretary's Disinterest In Automation

President Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Friday he isn’t worried about the potential effects of artificial intelligence on the American workforce, which in turn caused considerable consternation within the tech community.

In an interview with Axios, Mnuchin said the possibility of AI taking human jobs is “not even on my radar screen” and suggested it was “50-100 more years” away. He insisted he wasn’t worried about automation displacing humans in the work force and said, "In fact I'm optimistic."

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That sentiment did not sit well with Silicon Valley and the broader tech community—the very people behind the technology that Mnuchin is unconcerned with.

"Personally I'm dumbfounded," Amy Webb, the head of the Future Today Institute, said on Twitter. "If Mnuchin had done any previous reading or learning about AI, he couldn't have uttered those ridiculous words this morning."

Webb suggested Mnuchin was either “lying intentionally to placate people about future job loss” or “he's vastly disconnected from reality.”

"This is actually kind of frightening, particularly the dismissal of the impact of AI and machine learning on jobs," Larry Irving, a former Clinton Administration official who is now involved with tech companies, tweeted. "Has he talked to anyone in the tech (or any) industry recently?"

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Mark Cuban, who was brought up in the conversation because of his previous comments on the future of AI, responded to Mnuchin on Twitter by simply saying, “Wow.”

Earlier this month while speaking at SXSW, Cuban said the world’s first trillionaires “are going to come from somebody who masters AI and all its derivatives and applies it in ways we never thought of.”

The tech entrepreneur and NBA team owner also said he expected the world will "see more technological advances over the next 10 years than we have over the last 30," signifying change could happen much quicker than Mnuchin’s prediction that AI will take nearly an entire century to have an effect.

A 2016 study published by the Barack Obama administration found that low-wage positions are likely at risk of being replaced by AI-driven automation and could further drive a wedge between less- and more-educated workers, creating deepening income inequality.

The report also suggests new technology will create new career opportunities for higher-skilled workers and posits that public policy like re-training programs can help stave off some of the negative effects of automation. It appears from Mnuchin’s comments that the Trump administration will not pursue those policies.