Can a construction project be built by robots? It might seem a prospect for the future or something out of a science$-$fiction script, but it is not.

The majority of houses built today and constructed out of brick use a brick veneer approach. Laying bricks is a laborious and skilled trade, when done properly. In future, it may be done by robots. An Australian robot is set to take on bricklayers the world over, after building a three$-$bed, two$-$bathroom, $180-$square$-$metre home in less than three days. Built by ASX$-$listed Perth company Fastbrick Robotics $($FBR$),$ the Hadrian $*$ machine recently successfully completed a series of tests, proving it was capable of complying with various building requirements. Once these tests were completed, the robot was free to build its first full$-$home structure, which it completed within the allocated three$-$day time period.

In $2017$ the company behind the development of Hadrian X signed a non$-$binding memorandum with Saudi Arabia potentially to use the Hadrian X$\text{'}$s to build $50,000$ houses in the Kingdom by $2022.$ About $100$ robots are reported to be needed to do this.

A number of recent high$-$profile studies of robotics and artificial intelligence $($or Al$)$ in economics and sociology have predicted that many jobs will soon disappear due to automation, with few new ones replacing them. While techno$-$optimists and techno$-$pessimists contest whether a jobless future is a positive development or not, a $2019$

paper by Peter Fleming that you can access in the online resources at https:$//$study$.$sagepub.com$/$pm$,$ addresses the employment effects of digitalization. Despite successive waves of computerization $($including advanced machine learning$),$ he suggests that jobs have not disappeared and probably will not in the near future. He proposes that the concept of 'bounded automation' demonstrates how organizational forces mould the application of technology in the employment sector. If work does not vanish in the age of artificial intelligence, he argues that poorly paid jobs will most certainly proliferate.