Treasury secretary doesn't see AI as a threat to jobs

Mnuchin went on to clarify his comment a bit, noting that he doesn't think self-driving cars use artificial intelligence because "that's computers and using real technology we have today." It's a comment that shows his understanding of machine learning and AI to be rather short-sighted and outdated. Mnuchin said that he is thinking more about robots taking people's jobs, invoking the R2-D2 droid from Star Wars, saying that a self-driving car network is "very different from artificial, you know, R2-D2 taking over your job." Overall, he said he's "not at all" worried about robots or AI displacing jobs in the short term. "in fact, I'm optimistic," he said, referring to the potential of technology to help "create productivity."