Post #4230531

2026-07-30 06:42 UTC

Anyone who criticises "AI" has heard the reply "Yes, but Alphafold". Now Google shuts down Alphafold in order to focus on what it thinks is a profitable "AI"-business: Gemini. This is why I think it is so important to look at "AI" not just from a technological perspective but understand it as a social and economic project of domination. "AI" is LLMs and profit. Alphafold was no "AI" according to this definition. What is was is a helpful narrative to justify "AI". https://www.engadget.com/2225849/google-shuts-down-alphafold/

Replies (5)

@ainmosni@social.ainmosni.eu 2026-07-30 08:03

@malteengeler@legal.social AI is whatever it needs to be in order to make profit and silence its critics. Complain about it being crammed into firefox? Get told that you hate its local translation model. Complain about society involuntarily putting an inconceivable amount of resources into datacentres for chatbots? Get told that it's good at finding cancer (even though that's not done via the aforementioned LLMs and doesn't need half as many resources).

Open ##4232825
@librico@mastodon.online 2026-07-30 07:11

@malteengeler@legal.social This first enraged me, but then I read the article. The database with its 200 Million predictions is still online, they are just apparently making no followup Alphafold 3 has been recreated with similar accuracy scores: https://openfold.io/index.html I personally prefer saying 'but openfold' because we can train and infer the model. Developed by pharma companies "Solving decades-old math problems" and "finding decades old vulnerabilities" is a very similar value contribution to me

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@coba@gruene.social 2026-07-30 08:24

@malteengeler@legal.social there is so much I have told this. Many people have told this in the field of AI. Like collective perspectives in privacy, in ethics, in critique of AI. It is all there. It is just ignored or not known. Thank you for writing about it!

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@AAA365a@ohai.social 2026-07-30 08:31

@malteengeler@legal.social To me AI and web browsers are the same thing in that you type a question in then the answer comes up?

Open ##4333532
@Andreas__Nagel@social.tchncs.de 2026-07-30 09:42

Danke @malteengeler@legal.social ' Wer "KI" kritisiert, hat die Antwort "Ja, aber AlphaFold" gehört. Jetzt schließt Google AlphaFold, um sich auf das zu konzentrieren, was es für ein profitables "KI"-Geschäft hält: Gemini. Deshalb halte ich es für so wichtig, "KI" nicht nur aus technologischer Sicht zu betrachten, sondern auch als soziales und wirtschaftliches Projekt der Herrschaft zu verstehen. "AI" ist LLMs und Profit. AlphaFold war nach dieser Definition keine "KI". Was ist, ist eine hilfreiche Erzählung, um "KI" zu rechtfertigen.'

Open ##4333533