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Every time I tell AI utopianists that biology is too complex for AI to 'solve', they cite the success of AlphaFold. No, AlphaFold did not 's…

Every time I tell AI utopianists that biology is too complex for AI to 'solve', they cite the success of AlphaFold. No, AlphaFold did not 'solve' protein folding. It gets broad structures correct ~70-

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Every time I tell AI utopianists that biology is too complex for AI to "solve", they cite the success of AlphaFold. No, AlphaFold did not "solve" protein folding. It gets broad structures correct ~70-88% of the time (depending on evaluation), enabling useful but flawed statistical guesses. True "solving" would require ~99.9%+ accuracy, practically zero meaningful edge cases, and high confidence across fine details like side chains and conformations. Even then, this is just one narrow slice of the complexities of proteomics. The persistent gap between the "AlphaFold solved protein folding" claim and reality is a perfect example of AI overhype in biology.

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Source: Gary Marcus (X) | 2026-04-25

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