ChatGPT is the Killer App that made people notice the potential of LLMs that had been brewing for several years.

I see it as multiple things combining to reach a critical mass. Yes it was the killer app but it was also the first time it was actually good enough to chat with. Put another way- it's the shittiest LLM application going forward or the worst LLM application that people are willing to pay for. The hype isn't specifically for ChatGPT but imagining the trendline of LLMs or LLM adjacent tech projected forward combined with still falling compute cost and further democratization.