GPT3 wasn't that impressive. GPT 3.5 is when it became "oh wow, this could really change things," and that was 2022.

It certainly made a heavy impression on this tiny new outlet called NYT in 2020 : https://archive.is/QtpMT

GPT-3 shook the research world but it was by no means mainstream until the ChatGPT release in Nov 2022.

I feel like no one was really talking about this stuff until midjourney and dalle, but I can agree to disagree