Google think tank is now Jigsaw; becomes Alphabet's tech incubator

Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt announced in a blog post that its think tank – formerly known as Google Ideas will become a technology incubator separate from the Google search company and an arm of Alphabet. Schmidt wrote in the blog that the Jigsaw team’s mission is to use technology to tackle the toughest geopolitical challenges that included violent extremism, the debates around online censorship and threats associated with digital attacks. He said that Jared Cohen, who ran Google Ideas, will serve as President of Jigsaw and will also continue to serve as an advisor to him. “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 said in the blog. He also mentioned that the company hired talent to build tools targeting exactly these people. Schmidt then cited the team’s on-going projects that include Project Shield – that harnesses Google’s computing infrastructure to protect independent voices from DDoS attacks and Password Alert that helps protect people against phishing.