IF YOU’VE ever joked about your boss being a robot, stop laughing, they soon could be. A web service has launched that allows software algorithms to automatically recruit, hire and pay workers to do a wide variety of tasks.

“For the last 60 years, humans have controlled software – now we’re getting to the stage where software can control humans,” says Matt Barrie of Australian website Freelancer.com.

The website normally provides a forum for companies wanting to outsource their work. Now it has been upgraded so that developers can write software to post job adverts on the site, take on …