Yeah, it's interesting to think about change in terms of the change in the economy. It might be rose-tinted glasses when looking at the past, but when "the internet" went mainstream, ie when it had its "chatgpt 3.5" moment, in two years time there was more significant economic impact than this round of AI as I recall. And I'm thinking of the normal economy not the VC hype money slushing around. If that's true, I'm guessing the cost factor of AI vs the internet is also a substantial factor.
EDIT: I see that someone on the thread posted that Krugman doesn't think the internet brought real economic change either apparently.
I will kindly point out the entire point of the article isn't about culture or technology merely but it's specifically about AI's impact on the economy. This isn't just an "insightful observation", it's the whole point of the article.