Yes I think having domain knowledge (such as Chemistry, Physics etc) is invaluable for real world problem solving. I am a Materials Engineer I see it in my fiel

Yes I think having domain knowledge (such as Chemistry, Physics etc) is invaluable for real world problem solving. I am a Materials Engineer I see it in my field with ML as well. I think people are starting to understand now that being able to validate the inputs and outputs requires some understanding of the process you are trying to model. i.e. To ensure you aren't proposing things that fundamentally contradict basic Thermodynamics etc. Even for optimization type modelling you need domain knowledge to design sensible constraints to frame the problem.