Automation is set to hit workers in developing countries hard

On Friday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he's "not worried at all" about artificial intelligence replacing human workers because it's "50-100 more years" off. In reality, data shows this is already happening -- with an estimated 38 percent of existing U.S. jobs at risk of being turned over to machines by 2030, according to research from PwC. Another study put out by the University of Oxford last year had similar estimates: The researchers found that 47 percent of US jobs were at risk of automation in the next two decades. But despite justified fears of obsolescence in the West, it is actually developing economies that are poised to be hit the hardest by fourth Industrial Revolution, or "Industry 4.0," where machines are networked together in "smart factories" that have little need for human input. This is already evident in China, where the domestic economy exploded in the last two decades thanks to Western companies that moved their manufacturing operations there.