In the news, DeepMind's AlphaFold is said to have solved the protein folding problem using neural networks, but isn't this a problem only optimised quantum computers can solve?
To my limited understating, the issue is that there are too many variables (atomic forces) to consider when simulating how an amino acid chain would fold, in which case only a quantum computer can be used to simulate it.
Is the neural network just making a very good estimate, or is it simulating the actual protein structure?