Ask HN: What did our AI efforts of the past get wrong about AI models?

Given how we live in transformer-led AI revolution seeing positive results on an unprecented scale, what did we as a species get wrong in our past attempts at AI? Why did GOFAI fail to produce the same level of results? Is it purely because the folks of the past lacked scale be it hardware and data? Attention seemed to be around for atleast a decade, but it was only recently did it gain prominence. Is the next big leap in AI sitting in a random unnoticed paper waiting for someone to dedicate resources ?