That still isn't true. Fire and forget ranged weapons with heuristic targeting capabilities have also long existed. Heat-seeking missiles are the most obvious example, but target signatures have been more sophisticated than "kill the hottest thing reasonably close to a straight line from initial launch direction" for a while.

The line that has never yet been crossed is the invention of weapons that decide when to launch themselves, at least in ranged indirect fire. Things like CIWS are arguably both autonomous and self-initiate firing.

That's not nearly the same thing. The capability to kill based on the identity of the target is transformative.