The question was about the case "when these sorts of things happen". This is a generalization which assumes something analogous happened in the past. We're not talking narrowly about something which could "automate too many things that only humans could previously do", which we didn't have before ChatGPT, at least in such a short time. We're talking about similar, but not the same, things and PC revolution seems like a good example.

So it would be good to see the parallels with 1980-s here, if this generalization holds.