Chess engines. People once believed that in order for a computer to play chess we would first have to create an intelligence comparable to humans. Turns out you can win by evaluating millions of positions per turn instead. It would be somewhat disappointing for someone who was looking for a human-like opponent, that it can simply be brute forced. But it may be that a lot of “intelligence” is like that.

It’s the cognitive equivalent of the Indiana Jones sword vs gun scene.