Steve Wozniak, an oldbie at the time (though not a COBOL guy), bought every model of smartphone he could find and lined them all up on his car dash to see how their GPS apps differed in finding directions. That's how much excitement smartphones provoked in geeks of all ages.
People rejoiced at the idea that you could have a magic media-machine computer in your pocket that provided tools for every aspect of your life.
AI seems to be a lot of AI-bros running around highfiving each other over their new startups and everyone else looking around nervously wondering who will lose their jobs first, all while their managers have a new tool to push people harder with because of all the infinite promises made by AI-bros.
