Neural networks have been used in industrial process control for many years. This is just another industrial control problem, perhaps a difficult one.
Not really an industrial control though, but close to it.
Even well before that, ML is very closely related to statistics, so early practical applications would have been as simple as gathering data points on widget production and doing the kinds of analyses that are now backed into free spreadsheet software.
CNN’s literally changed the game.
It’s like talking about cell phones, so we attempt to compare [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_DynaTAC] and a modern flagship Apple or Samsung smart phone. Technically they can both make mobile phone calls, yes.
And it isn’t really wrong to compare them.
Technically, if we limit the specific scope of what we’re comparing and squint a lot, and avoid the context, they’re equivalent.
But they aren’t really the same type of thing either, eh?
In fact, if we take a broader view, the Motorola DynaTAC was a portable radio connected to the phone system, not what we’d call a phone.