All previous 'efficiency gains' were in physical manufacturing. Though, one could argue, the invention of the printing press was different as it allowed the more efficient distribution of knowledge. Same with the (general availability) of the internet. Now what we're seeing is the early days of more efficient application of knowledge well beyond what any single human could achieve.
Someone inventing a pin making machine freed up hundreds of thousands of people for different tasks allowing for the more efficient application of labor. Someone inventing a machine which does the mental work of hundreds of thousands of people on a single GPU will most likely follow a different trajectory.
