He still rules by consent, if the rest of his government decide they don’t like his style anymore then they can get rid of him. The original comment was about fully autonomous AI in the context of software making hardware making software which I took to mean independent of human intervention. If we include humans then we’re already there since humans use software to make hardware which runs the software etc. and this becomes a dull proposition.
Humans aren’t robots. Just because you pay them doesn’t mean they’ll do anything you say, they have to make a choice as to whether they’re alright with doing your dirty work. It’s not like you can just rent mercenaries off of Craigslist and have them carry out your master plan. You need to get back in touch with reality my friend.
Putin is also not "fully autonomous" in that regard, yet here we are.