You’re right, that’s true - I’d glossed over the folding@ methodology a bit. I think the core distinction is still that Folding is trying to divine the fold via simulation, while Alphafold is playing closer to a gpt-style predictor relying on training data.

I actually really like Alphafold because of that - the core recognition that an amino acid string’s relationship to the structure and function of the protein was akin to the cross-interactions of words in a paragraph to the overall meaning of the excerpt is one of those beautiful revelations that come along only so often and are typically marked by leaps like what Alphafold was for the field. The technique has a lot of limitations, but it’s the kind of field cross-pollination that always generates the most interesting new developments.