Google Ideas to become Jigsaw tech incubator
SAN FRANCISCO — Google Ideas, the Internet giant's think tank, is changing its name to Jigsaw and will become a technology incubator under the Alphabet umbrella.
Jigsaw will invest in and build technology to address humanity's most intractable problems, from countering violent extremism to online censorship, to "expand access to information for the world’s most vulnerable populations and to defend against the world’s most challenging security threats," Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt said Tuesday.
The new name and mission reflect a world that is a "complex puzzle of physical and digital challenges" and the belief that "collaborative problem solving yields the best solutions," he said.
Jared Cohen will serve as president of Jigsaw and will continue to advise Schmidt.
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Schmidt recruited Cohen, a former State Department staffer, to create the "think/do tank" in 2010. The idea came out of conversations the two had during a 2009 technology delegation that Cohen led to Iraq. Google Ideas extended the Internet giant's reach into world affairs.
"We created Google Ideas five years ago as an in-house think tank to explore how technology might help the next five billion people coming online for the first time. Many of the newest Internet users are coming online in societies where censorship, corruption, or violence are daily realities," Schmidt wrote.
"Over the years, we’ve hired engineers, product managers, and research scientists to build tools with these people in mind."
Those tools include Project Shield which uses Google's distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation technology to protect free expression online and Password Alert, which helps protect against phishing.
Google Ideas also uses data visualization to shine a light on global ills. One map shows the global arms trade, another digital attacks around the world in real time. The team is currently exploring how to reduce online harassment, Schmidt said.
Follow USA TODAY senior technology writer Jessica Guynn@jguynn