You can bet your sweet bippy that AI boosters will still be using AlphaFold as one of their go-to examples of how useful we're supposed to believe AI is, though...

Reply to You can bet your sweet bippy that AI boosters will still be using AlphaFold as one of their go-to examples of how useful we're supposed to believe AI is, though... on Sat, 01 Aug 2026 11:50:41 GMT

pianophile@mastodon.social — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 11:50:41 GMT

Reply to You can bet your sweet bippy that AI boosters will still be using AlphaFold as one of their go-to examples of how useful we're supposed to believe AI is, though... on Sat, 01 Aug 2026 01:54:24 GMT

jrhawley@scholar.social — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 01:54:24 GMT

@m_correa_m @folfdk @jwcph I try to be precise about "LLMs" vs other AI/ML, but I did use the term "AI industry" intentionally. I see lots transformer-style models published all the time for DNA interactions, protein folding, etc. I'm not worried about the lack of work in these areas, scientifically.

What I wanted to highlight was the labour aspect of it all. The industrial corporate players in this industry are anti-labour, and that should inform people how these tools can and will be used.

Reply to You can bet your sweet bippy that AI boosters will still be using AlphaFold as one of their go-to examples of how useful we're supposed to believe AI is, though... on Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:40:34 GMT

jwcph@helvede.net — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:40:34 GMT

@m_correa_m @folfdk Exactly - it's also kind-of my point, that the hype boosters keep using examples from related tech fields, even though they have little if anything to do with the hyped versions ("If AI can fold proteins it can also write research papers") & will never survive the business models of the companies behind them...

Reply to You can bet your sweet bippy that AI boosters will still be using AlphaFold as one of their go-to examples of how useful we're supposed to believe AI is, though... on Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:23:30 GMT

m_correa_m@fediscience.org — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:23:30 GMT

@folfdk @jwcph I hate so much how the much broader fields of AI (which has always been a marketing term though) and generative models have been conflated with LLMs in the popular imagination.

Reply to You can bet your sweet bippy that AI boosters will still be using AlphaFold as one of their go-to examples of how useful we're supposed to believe AI is, though... on Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:01:06 GMT

folfdk@helvede.net — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 08:01:06 GMT

@jwcph
I think there are a few reasonable interpretations, but @m_correa_m has a good and reasonable take here
https://fediscience.org/@m_correa_m/117008634177947668

For the arguments regarding alpha fold, it's important for me to point at the data that's used to train the model.
It's governed by nature with clear relations between DNA, coevolution effects and biophysics of the resulting molecules.

To me that's much different from the models trained on texts, which are the ones we generally talk about when mentioning AI.