Structure Representation of Deep-Learning Models: The Case of AlphaFold [Special Issue]
Issue: Issue 17 • Author/s: Giovanni Galli
Topics: Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of science, Theoretical philosophy
The scientific enterprise enriches the debate about models. In particular, in the field of structural biology, a new deep-learning neural network system called AlphaFold has been applied for many purposes. It allows us to predict a protein’s structure with high accuracy. I will present the system in light of the discussion of structure representation and argue for a specific kind of representational relation holding between the predicted model structure and its target-system. By doing so, I will criticize the artifactual approach advanced by Knuuttila (2021) and present the features that…