Jigsaw

Google Ideas

In 2010, Eric Schmidt approached Jared Cohen to lead Google Ideas as a "think-and-do tank" to research issues at the intersection of technology and geopolitics, and has worked on projects intended to protect activists and independent media from cyber-attacks. Ideas brought together a team of Google engineers, research scientists, product managers, and policy experts to address these issues. The team also hosted a number of conferences, including the 2017 Conflict in a Connected World Roundtable Series, in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations' Center of Preventative Action.

Ideas came under scrutiny for its links with the US State Department and its regime change activities.

Jigsaw

In a February 2016 Medium post Eric Schmidt announced the expansion of Google Ideas into a technology incubator named Jigsaw. According to Schmidt, the new name "reflects our belief that collaborative problem-solving yields the best solutions" and the team's mission "is to use technology to tackle the toughest geopolitical challenges, from countering violent extremism to thwarting online censorship to mitigating the threats associated with digital attacks". Jigsaw was expected to leverage more of Alphabet's engineering talent and resources to build more sophisticated products. Jared Cohen, formerly with the Policy Planning Committee at the US State Department, was the CEO of Jigsaw until 2022.

In January 2023, Alphabet announced about 12,000 employees being laid off. Citing conversations with anonymous former employees, Forbes reported the Jigsaw team of 50 was reduced by somewhere between a third and a half. The company did not disclose numbers or provide employees with a reason why they were let go, but Jigsaw was not generating revenue.