The Trump administration might not be worried about robots taking jobs. But the American public sure is. "In terms of artificial intelligence taking over the jobs, I think we're so far away from that that it's not even on my radar screen," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told an audience in Washington in March. "I think it's 50 or 100 more years." Despite such reassurances, 56 percent of Americans believe that automation destroys more jobs than it creates, according to a new study by Ipsos Public Affairs and the Center for Business Analytics at the University of Virginia.

The topic of automation of jobs is a source of much debate in the business world. People are worried about how many jobs will be lost to the advancement of AI, however, a recent study made PwC also added that this new technology would create new professions in the process. Yet, if the United States' Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, is to be believed the US doesn't think that its a matter worth worry about at the moment and believes that it's "50 to 100 more years away." While talking to Axios' Mike Allen on Friday, the Treasury Secretary was asked to address to concerns of people like Mark Cuban and Elon Musk regarding the potential loss of jobs to automation. His response confirmed that it isn't something this current administration is very concerned about. "We had an Axios event the other day with Mark Cuban who was very focused on artificial intelligence and how that was going to affect the workforce," Allen divulged.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says artificial intelligence is "so far in the future" that it's "not even on my radar screen." He says we won't have to worry about how it affects the workforce for "50 or 100 more years." Steve Mnuchin is not concerned one bit with AI and automation. In fairness to Mnuchin, the question was specifically about artificial intelligence, not robots. It's a fine distinction, but an important one -- while robots that can perform repetitive tasks have been in wide industrial use for decades now, artificial intelligence is a class of software that can "learn" and let machines do more sophisticated jobs.

Today, in 2017, the president's top economic advisor said he had no worries about robots putting people out of work. "In terms of artificial intelligence taking over the jobs, I think we're so far away from that that it's not even on my radar screen," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told an audience in Washington. "I think it's 50 or 100 more years." President Trump can go back to horsing around on his big rig confident in the knowledge self-driving trucks won't replace millions of drivers in a few years. Artificial intelligence is not only coming for jobs, the jobs it's coming for are the precious few left over after old-school automation already came for so many others.