Alphafold is like the foldit program that used to need a human to supply rotation suggestions on chemical branches of the protien. The goals were to mainly minimize surface area, and set hydrophobic chains in or out. This ideal lowest energy state would be the likeliest natural folding solution.

While folding small wasn’t always the exact solution to a problem, it narrowed the testing down for researchers (so they could work on a subset) and helped solve protein problems.

Alpha fold just uses generative AI to jiggle and wiggle and rotate the chains until they found these state solutions. Its a highly valuable tool for science.