Informed machine learning for complex data

Machine Learning (ML) has become a central force in Artificial Intelligence, driving major breakthroughs in applications that handle increasingly complex data, from images and text sequences to graph structures. While new architectures such as Transformers and Graph Neural Networks continue to redefine performance benchmarks in various domains, these predominantly data-driven methods often neglect critical domain knowledge, practical constraints, and broader contextual factors. This oversight diminishes their trustworthiness and restricts their impact in real-world settings. In this paper, we discuss the need for a more informed approach to ML for complex data. Specifically, we advocate for solutions that explicitly integrate structural awareness to capture underlying relationships in the data, incorporate key technical requirements to ensure safety and compliance with industry standards, embed environmental considerations to promote sustainability and resource efficiency, adhere to established physical principles, and uphold ethical and societal values. By weaving these dimensions together, informed ML can bridge the gap between purely data-centric methods and the nuanced demands of practical applications. We show how this integrated framework not only strengthens model performance but also ensures that ML solutions remain trustworthy, efficient, and sensitive to human ecological, ethical, and regulatory imperatives. Our discussion underscores the transformative potential of Informed ML to drive innovation across diverse domains, setting a new benchmark for responsible and high-impact ML system design. • Machine learning (ML) models have profoundly transformed research, industry, and society. • Emerging architectures improve performance on complex data but often lack domain knowledge. • Informed ML incorporates prior knowledge to reduce data requirements and enhance generalization. • This review examines the challenge of developing more informed approaches to ML for complex data.