The question it raises is if this is the fake surge, the one we see, what is the real one we don't see? Renewable energy comes to mind. Robotics too but maybe that's too tied up with AI.
In the end, it'll probably require something like model-based RL like Yann LeCun talks about and that's totally different to the LLMs.
Sadly, I think there's a risk we might also be heading towards a dark age with few advances since fundamental research has been squeezed away for being unprofitable or hobbled by a industrialized publishing/review-system for a while now and we've been coasting along on profitable applications rather than (expensive) breakthroughts in basics.
Robotics? lights-out operations in automated factories are already a thing, so I don't know if they're the "next thing".
mRNA vaccines? Sure, they're a huge medical advance. With great potential, in that area. But it's just an area.
Space? Maybe, if we get past LEO, find something useful to do there, and don't succumb to Kessler syndrome.
Eh, I do think this is kind of underestimating the changes in robotics that are occurring. LLMs incorporated with other ML kernels extend the capabilities a long way. That and the amount of computing power now usable to train robotics is far far larger.
I don't see the immediate application of language generation to navigating and manipulation in the physical world.