According to an article that appeared in Fortune earlier this year: Automation could replace 40% of jobs in 15 years. This article joins countless others in sounding the warning bells of the forthcoming AI-style industrial revolution. As we've heard so often, AI will replace jobs by the thousands. Almost overnight, half the country will be out of work. Admittedly, it would be impossible to tackle this issue from every angle. However, we can offer our sense of where this industry is, what the effects might be, and where we might be headed within 15 years. Is it going to happen?

But in his most recent book, "AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order," Lee argues that AI displacement will be fundamentally different. In a November interview with Futurism, Lee explained that AI will allow entire new industries to be built from the ground up with automation in mind -- not only will AI prove cheaper than human employees, but many of the new jobs it creates will be automated as well. Lee told CBS that this wave of automation and worker displacement will happen much more quickly than others, such as the invention and distribution of the steam engine. Part of that is because AI algorithms can be shared around the world among developers and business leaders with little need for new infrastructure. No railroads or highways or power grids need to be built.

An artificial intelligence expert and venture capitalist predicts automation will cause major changes in the workforce. Speaking to CBS News' Scott Pelley in an interview for 60 Minutes on Sunday, Kai Fu Lee said that he believes 40% of the world's jobs will be replaced by robots capable of automating tasks. He said that both blue collar and white collar professions will be affected, but he believes those who drive for a living could be most affected. "Chauffeurs, truck drivers, anyone who does driving for a living--their jobs will be disrupted more in the 15-25 year time frame," he said in the interview. "Many jobs that seem a little bit complex, chef, waiter, a lot of things will become automated." Lee's comments are not necessarily new.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said Friday that almost half of the jobs in the next two decades will be replaced by artificial intelligence. "By in large, the world is going to largely consist of people who can take language and put it into code, which then allows the computer to operate like a brain or people who are going to be displaced by that," Dalio told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo of "Mornings with Maria." The investor said the computer's capacity to process more information than the human brain is the reason artificial intelligence (AI) is being implemented in financial services. "Those algorithms and that process allows people to get the best thinking not just the thinking that happens to be in people's minds and it makes for an id meritocracy," he said. "Something like 40 percent of all jobs are going to be replaced over the next twenty years by these algorithms in various forms." Dalio, founder of the world's largest hedge fund, said coding, as an educational area and subsequent career path, will help bridge the gap of widespread jobs loss.