YOU WOULDN'T HIRE HIM TO RUN THE LOLLIPOP GUILD:

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says automation isn't something he loses sleep over: "It's not even on our radar screen . . . [it's] 50 to 100 more years" away, as he told an event organized by Axios. "I'm not worried at all," he added. "In fact I'm optimistic."

Mnuchin's statements contrast with warnings issued by the last administration, which produced reports looking at the economic impact of automation. It said, for instance, that 1.3 million to 1.7 million truck drivers could lose their jobs as a result of self-driving technology. "We are going to have to have a societal conversation about how we manage [robots and automation]," Obama told Wired.

New research shows Obama perhaps had a better sense of reality than Mnuchin does. Looking at the effect of industrial robots across the U.S., it shows how automation is already leading to job losses and wage decreases at a significant scale and that new jobs are not being created at a fast enough rate to take their place. The paper adds weight to those who say we should be addressing the social impact of artificially intelligent machines, perhaps with radical polices like a universal basic income.

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