We can and do make nonhuman mammals sit and repeatedly do tasks all day even when rewarded. Neuroscience behavior experiments in rats, mice, and apes are exactly this.

Humans are considered much less exceptional than they were in the 1950s.

I'd say our big edge over other species is the scale of our social networks. For example, apes can have economies where they trade currency, but that economy is going to be limited to a single tribe.