I use similar analogies to describe AI to friends and family. "When AI attempts to solve a maze, it just smashes into every wall over and over until it inevitably finds its way to the exit."
If it wasn't for high-powered graphics cards AI would still be a niche university research subject.
That analogy is accurate for traditional search-based AI methods, aka GOFAI.
Not so much for neural-net based approaches and the GPU hardware that enables it.