Applying information technology for the greater good is not a new concept. DataKind has been around since 2011, and the Social Good Hub at SXSW is in its fourth year. However, an interesting inflection point is drawing near as technology begins to take a quantum leap in societal impact at the same time that humanity is facing profound global challenges. Consider, for example, Star Trek-like advances in 3D-printed food that might help stem growing world hunger. While such technologies still have a ways to go before they can feed the world's population, there is burgeoning interest in the ways that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies could help address society's most pressing concerns, as well as the ethical considerations of applying these advanced resources.

Global technology major Accenture is looking to use the power of combination of the best technologies in the world to build solutions that are unique for their clients. "Accenture is like a glue organisation," says Marc Carrel-Billiard, global managing director -Technology R&D, Accenture. Accenture's technology R&D division is working towards combining different technologies wherein Artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) are at the core of it. Their engineers are combining AI with deep learning and machine learning to interpret the large amounts of data being generated from the 20 billion connected devices today. "So, if you combine all the data coming from the sensors with all the computing power, machine learning...we have the best of both worlds. We need to combine them and the combination is a cure, that's exactly what I am talking about - combining things together that makes a big difference," says Carrel-Billiard.